Defying Fate
by Rhi-an
Summary: *Complete* Fate decrees the sorceress line will continue through the generations. Fate also says Sorceress and SeeD cannot mix, does fate control you or your own free will? A relationship is tested and the theory will soon have a result.
1. Discussion

**I don't own final fantasy 8's storyline- characters or locations- Squaresoft owns them if you didn't know that already so I'm definitely not making money from this.**

Authors note. I want this to be a decent story. I'm writing this to explain a before you start reading.

I can't- I repeat I **can't** write a story without thinking that at least one person is reading this. Despite the fact some write for enjoyment I want to offer my own version of what I think could happen after the game.

So many people ignore the fact Rinoa is a sorceress and Squall is a SeeD. This presents a problem to me. I think they should be together in fact this is about their relationship. 

Guilt

_Worlds change rapidly with time_

_Time is not slow nor is it fast_

_But there is no in between_

_We are all swept through life in tides_

_With new changes in every wave_

_-Where can I climb ashore?_

The early morning was quiet and undisturbed. Squall preferred it that way. The quad was the closest he could get to an outdoor environment with the airborne Garden flying over the Centran Sea so he chose there. The quad was still damaged; nobody else was allowed there. This explained why there were no other students there and gave a reason as to why Squall was there. He wanted to be alone- to think. It was quiet enough here to do so.

For so long he had been alone. Now he had friends and a girlfriend and everything to live for. So much so he didn't really know how to deal with it. That was why he was taking time to think. From a life as monotonous and what would be 'boring' for the likes of Selphie to one where he had to make new decisions everyday, ever changing- it was a drastic change that he just couldn't believe or adjust to easily.

He sighed and walked down the decorated steps. As long as he could remember there had been painted patterns on the path. Then again that didn't say much- he had little to remember since using GFs. But he had stopped using them now and hoped to slowly regain his memories. Even if they weren't always happy.

Rinoa had taught him that. He smiled; Rinoa was one thing in his life he didn't want to change. He was glad she was there- one steady person in his life of upheaval. To be honest his feelings for her had knocked him for six when he first realised them- the day when Rinoa had gone into a coma. It was almost re-living the anguish of when Ellone had left. When someone left you began to feel how much impact they made in your lives- and you couldn't take them for granted anymore.

He tried not to be the same as before but he was not much different from meeting Rinoa. A person couldn't change all at once. It took a lot of conscious effort to change and Squall realised that. More importantly so did Rinoa. He had entered the relationship blindly and then the fears had set in; would she try to change him? Would a relationship affect his judgement as commander? Was it wise to be dating anyone at all?

The view in Garden regarding relationships was that it was to be avoided. For a while it had puzzled Squall whether he should be in one or not because he wanted to be with Rinoa so much but his duty was strong to Garden. It had been all he had known for most of his life.

He wasn't actually allowed in the quad. He had decided that being the commander he had the privilege to do so. If he was caught by anyone he could invent some story about surveying the damage as Selphie had been pestering him about where the Garden festival would be taking place this year. He wondered what would be better- moving Selphie's festival to another area or just fixing the damage that had been sustained in the battle between the Gardens. Selphie was persistent and now had Irvine helping her in her mission; she couldn't start preparing for the festival until there was somewhere for it to be held.

They would have no missions for a while- it was to give them a break from their last mission, all the better for everyone involved. Quistis was now fighting her dismissal as an Instructor- she had to have done something right because Squall and Selphie had been in her class and made it as SeeDs. Nobody really knew why she was doing this- she didn't want to be an Instructor again but as she told Squall it was a bad mark on her record so she wanted to change it. Or at least find the reason for her dismissal. She suspected they had been lying to her in regard to why she was now only a SeeD.

Not that Squall cared. What happened to them wasn't his concern anymore- he would try to resign as commander but if that didn't work he would know he had tried- Rinoa now knew how he felt about the promotion and was insisting he go and try to get rid of it. There were plenty of people who might actually like the job. Squall was a SeeD not a leader- they were completely different to him.

Behind him someone was catching up with him. He turned around to see who it was and saw Rinoa- she smiled and sped up. Her boots were clicking a little on the floor- that's how he had heard her despite her best efforts to stay quiet. The weather could reach all areas of the quad and the wind blew her hair as she headed towards him.

It was actually rare to be able to spend time with Rinoa alone. Squall was sick and tired of going around Garden with Rinoa and seeing people staring at them- either with their jaws hanging in surprise or smirks that Squall was actually dating someone. Then there had been the occasional idiot who shouted abuse at Rinoa- usually someone whose life had been affected by Ultimecia. It was amazing in these situations how much Cid had helped. He had spoken to the offender in such a way as to make them ashamed and then dismissed them in disgrace when all squall wanted to do was punch them.

"You're up early." She smiled as she finally reached him. The wind had calmed down a bit but she looked cold- he noticed she was shivering a little. He began to pay attention to the temperature- it was cold but he hadn't really felt it. He wondered how much else he could block out just because he was wrapped up in his own thoughts. Had he ever ignored Rinoa like that? She put up with him; she knew you couldn't change a person overnight but it concerned him quite a bit.

"So are you." He wondered something, "What are you doing here?" She smiled and her hand went up to her hair- trying to untangle it. Squall could see it was a waste of time, the wind hadn't stopped and she hadn't tied it up.

"I saw you coming here- this place has restricted access you know," She paused and pretended to look at him sternly, "what makes the commander so special that you can break Cid's orders?"

"Technically he's not in charge anymore." Rinoa frowned. Squall hadn't kept the bitterness out of his voice; she had tried to persuade him not to be angry about his promotion several times before but he wasn't happy about the arrangement.

"He is in spirit though." Squall rolled his eyes- _whatever, only Rinoa would say that- except maybe Selphie…or __Irvine__. "He's been in charge of Garden so long, most people still look at him as a leader- and he helps with the management side of things."_

"Yeah but when it comes to battle situations he leaves it to me." Rinoa sighed; she had made her opinion on the subject perfectly clear hundreds of times before and now she would repeat it.

"Squall that's because he doesn't normally lead battles-" she cut him off from his well rehearsed argument. "When did he ever need to? Garden was never attacked- he probably thought your grades meant you'd be good in a battle situation." He looked as though he still didn't believe her.

"I'm eighteen, I don't need this."

"Squall when did your age come into this?" She stared at him until he realised she wouldn't carry on until he looked at her, he looked up slowly and then she continued. "You've never acted like a teenager in the whole time I've known you- and from what I hear you never have." Here he interrupted her, his blue eyes piercing into her own.

"You think I want to be older?"

"I never said that. I'm saying you're just making excuses." Squall looked confused. His hand went to his forehead in the same movement as it had when she'd first known him, before they were together. "What?" She asked, curious.

"Do you think I should still be commander then?" He lowered his arm and she realised how much her opinion mattered to him. He would probably stick with the job and be bored stupid with it for the rest of his life as long as she said yes. It was far too much influence to have over someone and it almost made her back off.

"Squall…" She recovered quickly and shook her head, letting more hair grow tangled in the wind, "I don't think it's my decision to make. What do you want to do?" He shook his head in response to her question.

"I don't want to be commander… but I want to do the right thing." Again, that curiosity.

"Why would being the commander be the right thing?"

"Because Cid obviously thinks I should have the job and I owe Garden a lot," He ran his hand through his hair, a gesture new to him. She wondered where he had learnt it. "I thought this job would be temporary but when Cid and Edea came back they didn't say anything about me standing down. I don't like the attention." She nodded and let him continue, holding back a comment.

"We go anywhere and they stare at us. In the corridors, the cafeteria, the dormitories- they stop and talk to me when they haven't once paid attention to me before even when I was in their classes and I hate being noticed." Rinoa was looking worried. She didn't realise the emotion showed in her expression and Squall stopped before continuing with the next part of what he had to say. "Rinoa? What's the matter?"

"Squall, why does my opinion matter so much to you?" She stared at him waiting for a reply. He didn't understand half of what she was talking about but he sensed the seriousness radiating off of Rinoa and was silent. She wanted an answer though. "Squall?"

"It doesn't…" He stated uncomfortably, hoping it would be enough. It wasn't though.

"It does! Don't pretend it doesn't- Squall- why?" He was afraid now. Of what a little conversation had started, somehow he had caused a major problem in his relationship judging from Rinoa's face. He was still trying to figure out what was the matter with his own reasoning. Somehow in all his years of intensive training he hadn't learnt how to deal with people. He couldn't interpret what they thought behind false smiles, he didn't know how to say the right thing.

"I don't want to make the wrong decision." What had he said- she looked visibly relieved. Squall was equally so. He wanted to know what he had said to make her afraid. She ran up to him despite the distance between him being very short and ran into his arms for a hug.

She was still for a moment and then smiled. Everything was okay, what she'd been afraid of hadn't been the case at all.  Most of all since she'd inherited her powers was that they would manifest themselves despite her intentions. Squalls reliance on her decisions might have meant she was unconsciously manipulating him. 

Having powers she could barely understand terrified her more than anyone could imagine but in times like these she felt fine, Squall always made her feel less afraid because he had saved her several times and knew he would do anything for her. But being directly responsible for that loyalty and strength of feeling was not something she wanted. Not at any cost. Squall's arms were around her even though he was confused. He couldn't know though, he couldn't understand.

The war had bred misery and destruction; and the SeeDs would soon feel the after effects.

**A/n** –there! First chapter done. Let me know what you think please! I know I can't compare with the likes of Jeremy Chapter or Ashbear to name a couple of the authors I admire but I think I've improved on my first attempt. Read and review!


	2. Politics

Thank you to my two reviewers! I'm changing the viewpoint for now; this is where the beginnings of a plot start to manifest itself. Sorry if it's a bit rushed, I am writing as often as I can but reviews motivate me- hint hint? Please review!

Politics

Laguna stood in his office. The palace was huge; he still didn't know much of it very well even after living in it for eighteen years. He had an office- well that was a laugh he decided. He didn't do anything really. Unless you counted signing forms and the few direct orders he made like sending that ship to pick up Ellone in the war when Galbadia was after her.

He sighed, he hadn't regretted doing that for Elle but he did regret a lot of things. Raine for one- Squall for another. It was no use trying to be happy that Squall had turned out so well, it hadn't been his doing and that affected him. If he had just gone back to Winhil then instead of being afraid of Raine's reaction it would have been okay.

Shortly before being made President he had wanted to stay in Esthar. Even now it still amazed him that he of all people had been made President. It was a great opportunity at the time; it meant that he wouldn't have to worry about another job or money and he wanted to bring Raine to Esthar but at the time he thought it best he send Ellone to her first so she wouldn't get upset. But at the last minute he had cowardly backed out of telling her about his plans for his family so he didn't go with Ellone and the current situation was the result.

As much as he hated thinking about these things they always came back to him and he hated more and more his decisions then. You couldn't change them as Ellone had proved. What was he doing now? Who was he talking to? Nobody considered answering them. Squall especially wasn't going to. His reaction had showed that much.

What had been unsettling was that after the initial exclamations that it couldn't be true he was silent. Absolutely silent, no questions about Raine or why Laguna had left him and Ellone at an orphanage or anything. He was worried Squall would come to the wrong conclusions about the whole affair and they would probably be even worse than the actual truth. But now he had word that Squall was trying to forget everything. As though it hadn't been worth learning. Laguna had only heard this from Cid and Edea who taken an interest in the matter and Laguna felt jealous- actually jealous of the people who had taken his job of bringing up his children although doubt about his ability to have done so himself was always in his mind.

_I guess I don't know if I would've been as good as Raine at bringing them up; she was always telling me off about setting a bad example for Ellone. He tried to think again what his reasons for not fetching them from the orphanage had been. For Ellone it had been easy, he wasn't too trusting of Odine and didn't know if he would kidnap Ellone or not and take her away for experiments again. He wouldn't have been able to go chasing after her if that had happened because as President he had constant security and protection which meant he couldn't leave if he wanted to._

Now for Squall. What were his reasons in that case? The security for one and the environment for bringing him up in- it was politics and debates and boring stuff what life would that have been for a child? For someone who didn't have much to do officially he had a lot of papers to sign. How could he have made time for Squall? But he had for Ellone and he felt he should have tried a bit harder to sort out the mess that was his life. It had also taken him years to get over Raine and he couldn't think clearly in that time. Kiros and Ward had sorted all the political work out for him otherwise he would have been deemed incompetent and been thrown out of office- Squall might possibly have turned out worse if he had been brought up by his father.

Now he was trying to mend all the stupid mistakes and decisions and it wasn't working. He felt if Squall could forgive him- if they could at least start to talk about the mistakes and correct them he would be happy but Squall didn't want to know and that hurt more than anything.

Ellone came in- interrupting his thoughts, she looked pleased. He knew why- she had got lost several times since moving into the place because she didn't know where anything was. He had done exactly the same when he had first started living there but Ellone had the added difficulty having to search for someone. The office had a large window looking over the tall buildings of Esthar. Tall as the average buildings were the palace towered over them easily and he watched the sky that was its original blue again since the lunar cry until Ellone spoke.

"What's wrong?" He heard what she said and was confused.

"Wrong? I don't get it- where'd you get that idea?" He smiled trying to give the impression of complaisance but she had seen his troubled face and wasn't going to let the matter drop.

"Thinking again," she looked through the window as though seeing something fascinating in the horizon of blue buildings and lights. "Too much- something else you have in common." Laguna took a defensive response to what she had said.

"We don't have anything in common. If we did it would be a lot easier but he doesn't even try." It sounded almost as though he was insulting his own son and he frowned. "Forget that, I don't expect him to."

"He hasn't been exactly helping…" Ellone admitted, she was torn, she loved her 'Uncle' Laguna and she loved her 'brother' Squall. She just wanted her family back together but achieving that was another matter.

"I used to be able to stop thinking about it once, before I met him but now it's all I think about. How things could have been." He shrugged and shook off his serious air. He still didn't like serious matters. _What am I doing in politics then?___

"Don't stop trying Uncle Laguna," Ellone said switching her gaze from the buildings of Esthar to Laguna's face. "He just doesn't know what to think. He'll accept it eventually."

"I don't know Ellone. It's been a long time. Maybe we should forget it and move on."

"I don't want either of you to forget it- Squall has a family and the sooner he realises that the better." Ellone's voice had the finality of tone that Raine's had when she had been arguing with Laguna all those years ago in Winhil. He looked at her surprised.

And it was final, the door opened before Laguna could think of what to say in reply and Kiros and Ward came in followed by another aide who was clutching a handful of papers in his hands. They entered the room and the papers were put on the desk, the aide looked expressively at Ellone who caught his meaning well before Laguna did and started towards the door.

"Hey!" Laguna was surprised, "Why are you leaving Elle?" She didn't even bother to turn around.

"Secret political stuff right?" She said before continuing walking, Kiros explained in further detail to the confused President.

"She wouldn't be every interested in these matters, it's mainly about the science technicians." Laguna glanced at the door Ellone had just exited.

"Well what's wrong then?" Ward pulled a face at his friend's colloquial language as the aide obviously wasn't impressed, but the aide obviously had some common sense and picking up a particular sheet of paper started anyway.

"The government are concerned about the activities of a group of scientists who have resigned their jobs and left Esthar." Laguna had been President long enough to know that a group of scientists leaving Esthar was dangerous. The knowledge of the technicians was highly valuable and would be relentlessly sought after by other nations if it became available.

"And the consequences if Galbadia obtained the technology would be devastating, the only thing that's preventing a war is the advanced technology Esthar has. If we lose that advantage and Galbadia steals the technology we could be facing a war over power." Laguna wondered about all the retired scientists and decided to enquire.

"Well, what about the scientists who don't work anymore- how come these guys are leaving Esthar? Don't they just retire and stay in the city?" The aide sighed.

"I'm trying to explain President Loire," He said clearly annoyed at the interruption, Ward and Kiros were struggling not to laugh. Laguna's formal title was always a source of amusement to them and Laguna scratched the side of his head in embarrassment, muttering, "You don't have to call me that…"

The aide clearly had little or no patience. He slammed the papers on the table hard, the papers were everywhere and he didn't bother to pick them up. He looked around at them all, they were silent. Laguna just about managed to keep a straight face. Kiros and Ward were much better at keeping a straight face than him and Kiros addressed the aide calmly with no trace of laughter. "My apologies, please explain."

The aide still looked aggravated but he sighed picked up the paper with the air of a long suffering servant and explained, "The scientists in question escaped the programme of staying in Esthar. We do feel however that their purpose isn't to sell the information to other governments."

"Then what?" Laguna sat down in the chair behind his desk with his arms folded.

"They expressed concern in releasing the Sorceress recently; they felt it would jeopardize the safety of millions to allow her to live a normal life among the people, let alone living in BalambGarden."

"Why?" Laguna sat up straight from slouching in the chair. Ellone had been trying to get him to sit properly to improve his posture for ages but he had forgotten.

"Many feel that the Sorceress would not hesitate to manipulate the SeeDs. The general opinion is that she is dangerous, and if she does gain control of the SeeDs who else will fight her?" Kiros intervened; Laguna looked as if he was going to attack the aide. The fact that the Sorceress was none other than his son's girlfriend biased him and he couldn't look at the situation in an impartial light.

"Have they any proof for these allegations?" Kiros asked the aide, "Don't they know her role in defeating Ultimecia?" The aide replied swiftly.

"They believe she will –if not now eventually- become corrupted and revert to the behaviour all Sorceresses. They left we believe because they intend to attempt solving the problem themselves." Laguna looked concerned. He stood up.

"Thanks, you can go now." The aide looked surprised.

"But I haven't described who the missing scientists are." He indicated the papers.

"I guess I can look at them myself. You can go okay?" The aide looked as though he wanted to object but changed his mind.

"I guess- I mean, yes President Loire." He looked at Laguna who was already looking at the papers and walked out of the office.

As soon as the aide was gone Laguna spoke. "Who was that guy?" He put down the report he was holding, "I haven't seen him round here before."

"He's a new aide Laguna; you drove one close to a mental breakdown." Laguna frowned, suddenly remembering who the previous aide in question was.

"That's not true; if you ask me he looked pretty stressed anyway." Ward had an amused expression on his face.

"Ward says 'that stress was you fault and don't even try to deny it'" Kiros interpreted.

"Hey- I wasn't anything but my usual self." Laguna said defensively.

"That was the problem." Kiros said laughing. Laguna chose to give up the argument; he never was very good at them. He just didn't really know how to defend himself, Raine he certainly would never have been able to beat in a dispute. She could think up replies to his comments faster than lightning. Again he found himself missing her.

"Are you okay Laguna? You're quiet, that's not a good sign."

"Ah, it's nothing, just thinking about Raine again." He was slightly embarrassed as though he expected them to laugh at him.

"And Squall too I'll bet." Laguna wondered how Kiros always seemed to know what was bothering him; did Kiros really know him that well?

"Yeah," He admitted reluctantly. "Its like he's trying to forget I said anything at all. I don't get it, I thought he'd be angry, upset or something but trying to forget it? I don't know…"

"It's probably an attempt at dealing with it. It's not going to work though. Just wait a bit longer, he'll ask questions. I'm sure." Laguna shrugged, he still didn't like talking about serious subjects.

"D'you guys know where Elle went?" He asked, Kiros shook his head. "Guess I'll have to go find her myself then." He said. He left the office to go and find Ellone and Kiros and Ward turned to the papers Laguna had left carelessly on his desk. Then they started to read them.

Second chapter done now. Don't forget to REVIEW!


	3. Conference

Thanks to **Caleb Nova, Exhile87 and**** RoMayDrako for taking the time to review. Thanks especially for your positive comments. I have a plan for this whole story so I just have to focus on writing as well as I can. I have to share this computer with three other people so I can't write as often as I want. Anyway- here's chapter three. I can't define the genre for this. I'll decide later.**

Conference

Squall knew he had work to do; there were hundreds of papers he had to read and sign but right now he wanted to be able to relax and think in peace without someone interrupting by telling him thinking too much was bad for him. As far as he was concerned it wasn't a problem, not thinking about something meant you made mistakes. Acting on impulse caused more problems than solved them.

Seeing Rinoa worried earlier that day was not a peaceful start to the day. He wanted to know what was going on in her mind as she seemed to know what was going on in his most of the time. Somehow he had the feeling their relationship was at a precarious point- they had not known each other very long and their relationship was already far more intense than a couple who had been together for years. He had become her knight, which was a deep commitment. It scared him a little sometimes. He was seventeen and knight to the sorceress who had inherited powers from three different sorceresses- Edea, Adel and Ultimecia.

As far as he was concerned there was no question of leaving her. He had known at the time when he had embarked on a relationship with her it would be far more deep and requiring much more commitment than an average teenage relationship normally would. At the time he had blindly fallen in love with her, he still was but her inheritance meant it would be much more serious than he would ever have assumed. But it was times like these when Rinoa was not there to ease his troubles by unconsciously reminding him that he loved her and felt they would be together forever. But he had always been the serious one. He looked at the national statistics when he was alone and knew that most teenage relationships didn't last- he sometimes adopted a pessimistic air regarding their relationship and realised it would be difficult.

But he loved her to such a degree that he felt the world could go to hell and leave him and Rinoa alone. He remembered that day when he realised he loved Rinoa; it was a feeling totally unique to anything he had ever felt. It was different to his love for his 'sister' Ellone, it made him miss her when he had short missions and conferences to go to regarding the funding of Garden. It made him feel completely happy when she was there; he even smiled and forgot to be embarrassed about anyone watching.

The door to the office was knocked, Squall almost jumped but recovered as fast as he could. "What is it?" He never said 'come in' or such like as he really would have preferred to be left alone in the office which had once been Headmaster Cid's. Cid was still officially headmaster; he just never took such an active role in running Garden now.

Squall sighed, right now Cid was running around organising an orphanage facility within Garden so children could grow up to be SeeDs without having to transport orphans from Centra, the old orphanage was destroyed years ago anyway in a storm that shattered the frail building into further ruins. Squall disapproved of raising orphans to be SeeDs anyway. It was something he wanted to bring up with Cid but didn't want an argument about.

SeeD was his own fault really though, if Squall hadn't started going on and on about SeeD and Garden when he had accidentally gone back to the wrong time in time compression maybe Matron wouldn't have thought of it. Maybe things would have turned out different. But then the question of whether he would have met Rinoa came up in his mind and he dismissed all regrets about SeeD.

"It's Quistis." Squall held back a sigh; he didn't really want to see her right now. Whenever she came to his office she would bring a list of missions for him to take part in. Most of the time he managed to get out of taking part in half of them but the ones he was left with were a pain. Boring and ridiculously easy, missions even the lowest level SeeDs could do.

"What is it Quistis?" Quistis took this as a sign to come in and entered the office. Squall tried not to cry out in shock when he saw dozens of files and papers in her arms and tried to think up plausible excuses for not taking part in a third of the missions but he couldn't think of any. The excuse that he wasn't used to all of the work he had to do and was behind wouldn't wash anymore. And that he was still tired after the Ultimecia mission wouldn't really be a good excuse either.

"Some missions requests for you Commander." He hated being called Commander and she knew it but Quistis kept the formality in Garden matters and wouldn't stop calling him Commander.

"How many?" He asked eyeing with a look of dread the papers Quistis was unloading onto his desk.

"Only thirty." She said smiling at the look on his face. "You have to decide which ones are top priority; a lot of our employers want you on the missions. You have a growing reputation."

"Is there any way I could turn half of these offers down without offending them?" Squall looked up at Quistis wearily. She shook her head. "Damn."

"Unless…" Quistis smiled and Squall looked up hoping there was a solution but not wanting to fall into a trap.

"What?" He said cautiously.

"You could attend that conference concerning the treaty between Esthar and Galbadia." Squall shook his head.

"No, Cid's been trying to get me to go to that thing for ages, I said no then and I'm not changing my mind. Even if he did send you to try to get me to agree I'm not going."

"But if you don't go to it the peace talks will last a lot longer. They need a neutral representative that can vouch for Esthar's sincerity."

"I don't want to go to it Quistis. I hate politics."

"You're the Commander! You're supposed to get involved in politics- if you don't we could end up being hunted by the governments like we almost were in the war, this is important." She could see he felt guilty. He was now responsible for hundreds of lives in Garden, the responsibility not being something he asked for but something he couldn't ignore now. Everyone else involved in running the Garden was taking their duties seriously and only Squall was still adjusting to the changes his position caused.

"What makes you think you can change my mind where everyone else failed?" He said darkly, Quistis almost flinched but didn't let it show. Instead she tried another tactic- her last resort. If she couldn't get him to agree on grounds of responsibility then she would resort to blackmail.

"Then I guess you'll be spending months getting these missions out of the way." She waited to be dismissed, watching his reaction. He sighed, he had no choice and they both knew it. She knew she had won.

"Let Headmaster Cid know I'll be going on the trip." He wasn't happy but months of boring repetitive missions were not particularly appealing to him. Something Quistis could understand to a degree although she wasn't anywhere as much in demand for missions as Squall because of his position in Garden as Commander.

She nodded and left, the office becoming more unpleasant in her opinion the longer she stayed in it, its atmosphere was musty and old. Squall unfortunately was left to finish off mountains of paperwork still lying on his desk besides the requests for his involvements in missions which Quistis had left for him to sort out. It was getting too much all of this work.

Squall thought of Rinoa, they'd promised to go to the secret area that night and watch shooting stars together, he hadn't the heart to tell her that the likelihood of shooting stars occurring tonight were a million to one. Never mind, they could talk, finally. Alone this time without Zell or Irvine laughing and making dirty jokes about him and Rinoa. Rinoa just laughed when she heard them, telling him to laugh it off but Squall felt embarrassed, and he made no decent disguise of it.

And now he had to go to the conference, well the day was really turning out well. Squall had scared his girlfriend and managed to get booked on a conference he had spent the previous six weeks trying to avoid. Cid and Edea had been on at him to go for the whole time. Squall had taken to avoiding them whenever possible.

There was a particular reason he wanted to avoid going to the conference. Laguna would be there. Not straight away because of national security but he would be there later on and knowing Laguna he would probably take the opportunity to talk to him and about his mother. Squall had spent so long trying to forget what he had learned that to be forced to face the truth again would just destroy all his efforts permanently. He just didn't know how he would react when the barriers he had formed around himself started to collapse.

But he really hated politics, the backstabbing; his lack of expertise in that world worried him, he didn't want to be cross examined by representatives of different governments, he was a SeeD not a politician.

He sat back, he wondered what he would say to Rinoa- he had to go on a conference and he wasn't sure when it would end. How did he put that to her? Would she do what she had done before and stay in Garden until he got back? But the longest his missions had ever lasted before were three days. A month at least. It was an entirely different matter. He didn't want to be away that long anyway.

He pushed aside the feeling of dread that about having communicate this news to her later and started to fill in some of the paperwork he had been working on before Quistis came in. Again he wished he had a secretary.

Sorry it's so short; there just wasn't much to write about here. Next chapter will be about the conference, I just didn't want to jump from one scene to another, the story hasn't started yet, you wait for the next one. I mean it- it should be interesting according to my plan. Review!!!


	4. When the trouble begins

When the trouble begins

          If he had to name anything more tedious than the evening he had just had it wasn't possible. He had had to sit through three hours of mindless introductions for representatives of each Government and while he barely had to speak at all the politicians loved talking and took great pains to do so, resulting in the most boring evening of his life. They hadn't even really got round to talking much about peace treaties, just been discussing the current state of affairs within the governments the real reason for their meeting barely came up at all.

          He headed back to his hotel. Rinoa had surprised him, turning up the day after he had arrived in Deling City where the peace talks were to be held. She had booked her own room which was enough to shut up Zell and Irvine and when he wasn't in the conference room half-listening to the conversation he was with Rinoa- she insisted she would pay him back for the tour he had given her when she first stayed in Garden. She did this by showing him all the boring sights of Deling city.

          Not that he would ever tell her that they were boring though. At least she talked when she was guiding him around the places where tourists visited. He could admit that he was no tour guide and Rinoa was much better at the job than him.

          The weather was rarely that bad in Galbadia but today it was trying to rain and as a result Squall's hair was getting quite damp and he would be pestered by Rinoa to wash it when he returned to the hotel. She always bothered about things like that; he didn't really care either way. It was certainly cold though, and to reach the hotel faster he would take a shortcut through an alley, it was freezing and he wanted to get inside as soon as possible.

          The sights of Deling the tourists didn't see were the dirty alleys and slums that were a feature of every city. They saw the archway and the presidential residence and caught the slow buses. Squall had been offered transport just before he left the conference but as the heavily congested roads meant he would be faster walking than taking a car it didn't take much intelligence to see which option he chose.

          It was ridiculous to travel in a car though, yet for public image the politicians did. A lot of them would be staying in higher class hotels then the one Squall was staying in. They looked down on him he guessed; they certainly didn't want his opinion in debates.

          Leaving the conference hall he wondered about Laguna, when he would turn up. He was scheduled to arrive for the conference in a few days. Squall didn't want to be there when he arrived but he had no choice. All he would need to do was turn up at the talks and leave as soon as they were over, he didn't need to stay and socialise. He wouldn't know how to do that anyway, they were completely different classes and they things that mattered to Squall wouldn't matter to the politicians.

          He jumped when someone addressed him by his name. He looked around in the direction of the voice and saw Rinoa standing behind him. She smiled. "When did you get here?" Squall asked surprised to see her. She usually waited at the hotel, particularly with this weather.

          "There wasn't anything to do at the hotel. It's no fun waiting for over three hours by myself." She added a casual tone to her voice, "plus I was sick of drunks trying to chat me up. Are we ready to go now?" 

"You should have stayed out of the bar then."

"What else is there to do?"

Squall followed her as she walked ahead, he wasn't angry about the drunks; he knew she was capable of defending herself if the need arose. He caught up with her and she started to talk about the phone call she had made that day.

          "There wasn't much to do; I wondered how everyone was doing so I phoned them today."

          "And?" He was trying to keep his mind off the icy temperature made worse by the closed walls of the shortcut they had taken so he spoke more.

          "They said things were fine except-," She laughed, "Quistis is a bit overwhelmed with taking over your workload while you're away. And after all that time trying to get you to take part in this mission too." Squall could also see the irony of it, Quistis had been among numerous people who had informed Squall he was behind on his work and now she was experiencing first-hand the difficulties of his job herself. Rinoa at the time of his first receiving a load of work had been annoyed at Quistis for pestering him so much for not making deadlines.

          "There was a lot of work though." Squall admitted reluctantly. Rinoa looked at him, a strange expression on her face.

          "Do you feel…sorry for her Squall?" She looked amused, Squall knew why, he had been bitter about Quistis and complained to Rinoa repeatedly during the past few weeks about the pressure she had put on him to attend the conference. Witnessing a change of heart in Squall was strange to say the least. When he formed an opinion about someone she had assumed he stuck with it.

          "I'm not feeling sorry for her." Squall eventually forced himself to say, "Just admitting I left a lot of work behind that's all."

          "Don't feel too guilty then." Squall looked at her, he was confused.

          "What?"

          "You feel sorry for her don't you? Well I know for a fact that she didn't have half of your workload. I don't know how she had the nerve to call you lazy when she didn't have half the amount to do."

          "She probably didn't realise how much there was to do." They had reached the alley through which they would take a shortcut to the hotel; Rinoa was talking about their other friends.

          "Selphie says Irvine still hasn't asked her out. I promised her I'd help her when we get back from the conference." Squall looked around, something was bothering him about the alley, usually he would see a couple of drunks, especially at this time of night when they were kicked out of the pubs for drinking too much but today there weren't any.

          Rinoa was still talking about the phone call, this time about Irvine.

          "And Irvine wanted to ask her out but he's too scared to- those two should stop being scared and just start dating already, Zell's taking up teaching martial arts to the kids in Garden before they start training to be SeeDs and Cid- Squall are you listening to me?" She finally couldn't ignore the fact that Squall was looking around for anyone. He obviously wasn't paying attention to a word she was saying.

          "Squall?" She asked, "What are you looking for?"

          "It's too quiet here," Squall explained, "there's usually some drunks sleeping in the alley here- wonder where they went." Rinoa laughed.

          "You think that's a bad thing? You're paranoid Squall." She looked around and saw nobody. "See? Nothing suspicious lets go." Squall sighed.

          "I have a weird feeling Rinoa." Rinoa shook her head and continued forward. She could see the lights of the city through a gap in two buildings ahead. It was strange that the alley was dark and no light shone into there. It wasn't just an alley though, it was a small area where dustbins were waiting to be emptied, the rubbish inside them generated by customers in the stores of the shops on the main street.

Squall suddenly heard Rinoa scream, he had turned his attention away from her for a second- looking for something unexpected. He ran forward to Rinoa- and saw a shadowy figure had seized her by the waist- she had no magic junctioned but she was a Sorceress for Hyne's sake, surely she could cast a spell to stop them? Her powers didn't require GFs to be ready to use. Squall ran forward, his mind filled with fear that the attacker would injure her, and regretting that he hadn't been paying attention to her. 

What would he do if the attacker had a knife however? He wouldn't be able to help her if he got himself injured and he didn't have his Gunblade or any spells stocked. He wondered desperately, w_hen is she going to cast a spell? When a blinding light filled his vision and he realised she had cast Ultima._

          He ran toward her, Rinoa was crying, she had run away from her attacker who was lying on the floor taken by surprise by the force of the spell, she was obviously scared after what had happened Squall stood helplessly, trying to decide what to do, he was a SeeD and he had to bear in mind his training. He could comfort her or stop the attacker from running away. His SeeD instinct took over and he ran toward the attacker who was now getting up groggily and made a half-hearted attempt to escape. Squall seized him by his shirt and slammed him against the wall. The attacker wasn't drunk surprisingly, he was sober if a little dazed from the Ultima spell but otherwise he looked perfectly normal if you could count attacking someone for no reason normal.

          "What the hell did you do that for?" Squall said trying to control his temper, he was a SeeD which taught him to control his fear in battles and other situations but anger was something that you could never entirely be free of and he wasn't going to waste his energy calming down for this man. Rinoa was still crying, now sitting on the floor and trying to cry quietly, Squall wanted answers.

          "She's the sorceress!" The man said as though that would explain everything. Squall wanted to comfort Rinoa but what the attacker had said made him curious and even angrier at the same time.

          "What does that mean? What did she ever do to you?" The man took a deep breath, staring at him obstinately.

          "She is the Sorceress- that fact speaks for itself."

          "What reason do you have for attacking someone who's done nothing to you?" Another thought occurred to him though, such as how did anyone know the identity of the present sorceress? It had been hushed up shortly after the Ultimecia mission; it was to give Rinoa a chance at living a normal life. She wouldn't hurt anyone but her reputation would cause others to think she might.

          "She's a sorceress- its second nature to them! If she hasn't already she will!" Rinoa was standing up now staring straight into the eyes of this man who seemed insane, he had provided no reasons for his actions; he glared at Rinoa, his hatred abundantly clear. She stepped back.

          "Let him go Squall." Rinoa spoke for the first time. Squall was surprised, this man was not particularly strong, he couldn't escape without the aid of magic and he obviously didn't have any otherwise he would have used it before now; they should take him to be arrested.

          But another realisation was that if he was arrested her identity would be obvious to everyone, it would spread, everyone seemed afraid when a Sorceress was involved.

          Squall reluctantly let him go, the man ran off instantly, as fast as he could manage with his injuries. Squall was confused, he turned to Rinoa who shrugged and walked away, her arms folded as though she felt the cold, although it hadn't bothered her previously. Squall didn't understand why she had told him to let her go. He followed her, trying to catch her up. They had left the alley now and were in the blinding glare of the main street.

          "Rinoa," Squall called after her. "Rinoa!" He called again as she didn't turn around. She entered the hotel and he followed her. He made it halfway up the stairs when he saw the door to her room was shut and he guessed locked, he was right he discovered as he tried to open the door.

          He looked back to the attack. He had watched it through a wall of thought. He hadn't moved until he analyzed the situation and that had nearly killed her. Why did he always have to _think- it wasn't always a help._

          He tried to talk to her for a bit longer but eventually gave up when she didn't answer and the receptionist threatened to send for security to throw him out of the hotel if he wasn't quiet, and then he went to his own room.

~~~~~~~~~~~

          Rinoa was sitting on her bed, considerably calmed down. Her eyes were red and she stood in her bathroom trying to clear her face a bit. Squall had waited for her for what seemed like a long time, he had called to her and she had wanted nothing more than to let him in but something stopped her. She wanted to be alone to think; even though Squall didn't speak much he would be a distraction for her.

          Life wasn't fair. She had lost so much in her life, her mother and even her father although he had been as much to blame over their damaged relationship as herself and she had unfairly been singled out to receive the Sorceress powers.

          Since the events of Ultimecia she was different, she was wary constantly of being hated and shunned by society because of the powers. She had never consciously used them except in battle situations like that one, when she had had no choice.

          She had let him go because if he had been arrested her identity would have been revealed and all the work Cid and Edea had gone to for her anonymity would have been wasted.

          Was this what it would be like? It would come out eventually; the press were relentless and cruel regarding the Sorceress, whether she had actually committed a crime or not. Would Squall be able to stay with her after that? His reputation would be at stake too.

          But power was supposed to corrupt people and with the power she held she didn't know when she might be misusing it. She had been working so hard to conceal them for the months after Ultimecia. She glanced outside following an urge to do so. She saw Squall's light brown hair, he was leaving the hotel; she fought back her worry and hoped he wouldn't be doing anything like trying to catch the man who had tried to attack her. She knew in her heart the situation could have been much worse, he could have had magic or a weapon and killed her before Squall had a chance to do anything.

          She had never seen him so angry though. She remembered how he had slammed the man against the wall with such force she was surprised he hadn't broken an arm or something. There were sides to Squall she didn't know yet.

          Curious she decided to follow him to wherever he was going. She checked in the mirror, and made sure she didn't look as if she had been crying. She wasn't entirely certain but if she didn't go now she would lose him.

The night had more surprises yet.

Another chapter over. I am rubbish at action scenes so this isn't particularly good but now the story gets underway. Thanks for the extra review **RoMayDrako. I'm glad someone likes my story! This is my first proper fic though; I just hate labels of 'first fic' because it really makes no difference to the quality of the story, it just means those people try to steal all the reviews.**

I'm done ranting now; I still don't know what genre this is. I need to make my mind up.


	5. A different perspective

A new perspective

          He was angry, not with Rinoa but the man who had treated her like that. That was society now. People hated each sorceress because of a few bad ones and people hated SeeD because they thought their morals were wrong. At least, they _said _that but in truth most people who said that were Galbadian and didn't like the idea of SeeD being hired to assist defending countries Galbadia wanted to occupy.

          Once again society scared Rinoa, Squall didn't really want to admit it but he was losing patience over her fear, true he didn't know what it was like to be in her position and he never would but at the very least she could face her fear and prove she wasn't like the other Sorceresses, as her Knight he would defend her and if she wanted to keep her identity a secret he wouldn't divulge it. But he had no respect for her reaction to being a Sorceress and that would eventually have an effect on their relationship, he could feel it weakening already.

          It was raining now, he wasn't really wearing anything that would protect him from the rain and his hair already damp from earlier was soaked through now. He wasn't even sure where he was going all he knew was the attacker today looked unprofessional and might return to the alley again to try and attack Rinoa again. It was an unofficial rule in SeeD- no it was common sense not to repeat the same tactics in a mission but this man judging from earlier didn't have any common sense and might do just that.

          Hyne it was cold. He didn't realise just how cold until he started to pay attention to his surroundings and as per usual he drifted back into his thoughtful mode again, the one everyone attributed to his desire to be alone and his seriousness. But really it was a lapse of concentration which had the side effect of causing him to be rude and ignore people most of the time.

          _At least- that's my excuse_ he thought. He looked around, he was a few minutes away from the alley and he wanted to be sure he was fully prepared for an ambush, he had his GF junctioned and healing and combat magic stocked. But he couldn't guarantee that the man he was searching for wouldn't have backup by now, he shook away the thought of ten drunken men who- while they shouldn't be much of a problem alone would be difficult to beat as a group.

          Why had he left the hotel? The reason didn't seem very good now, and earlier that evening he had proudly thought that he was a thinker; someone who considered an idea before carrying it out. Because impulse ideas might go wrong and cause trouble. And what had he just done? So he was like other people after all, he made mistakes like his friends, he remembered his casual response to the news that Rinoa was hanging off the quad in the attack against Garden and then helping her afterwards.

          Back then though he was new to leadership, if he was even leader at all just then, damn he couldn't remember because of the GFs, he could remember things he didn't want to but when he wanted to forget things he couldn't, it was always the case. Like all his newfound problems with Rinoa that he previously didn't know he had.

          _Why do I have to think too much now?_ Squall thought knowing that when he did think too deeply about anything other than a mission he would become depressed and worried about things that were happening, or even things that weren't or wouldn't. He was happy in his relationship with Rinoa but something made him frustrated about her views on things.

          It was cold, he noticed it again and he walked faster so that he could either warm up or finish what he was doing faster searching for Rinoa's attacker. Rinoa's locking herself in her room had made him determined to try and set her fears at ease, what he would do he wasn't sure about yet- looking in the bars was his best idea and it was so vague he didn't know where to start.

          He ran a hand through his hair to see how wet it was, it was soaked, and the rain was falling down so hard that he had to wipe it out of his icy blue eyes repeatedly. The eyes in question scanned the entrance of the alley he was coming close to. It was strange how stark the contrast of the alley was in comparison to the main street. He looked for the familiar discolouring of brick that surrounded the shortcut to the square in front of presidential residence where the conference was usually held.

          That was another thing, they had mentioned somewhere of higher security for the next conference, it didn't matter that he didn't know where it was, if he got lost he would be glad of the excuse not to attend it, Laguna would be there, that was the reason for all the added security. Squall had actually listened to the conversation about the requests the Estharian aides had insisted on for their president, the reason he had listened was because the politicians had been irritated about the request. They didn't see why the president had to have extra security the rest of them didn't have.

          Squall entered the alley, it was even worse in the alley with regards to the weather; the rain wasn't falling so badly in here but the force of the wind seemed ten times magnified, Squall felt even colder and wondered why nature had to choose then to rapidly progress into a storm, especially in an alley littered with newspapers and broken bottles, the newspapers that had been wrapped around cheap fish and chips were becoming soaked and it became a job to avoid them.

          The alley was boring and empty as he had had expected; there was absolutely nothing to see besides the rubbish and side doors from the storerooms of shops. He looked around; there should be something, some signs of a struggle. But he looked as around as thoroughly as he could despite the weather affecting his vision and sighed. There had been no reason to come out at all.

          Maybe he would have waited normally but he couldn't be bothered this time. He walked back to the main street where he had come form and began the fifteen minute walk back to the hotel. He saw a bar though, it wasn't one he usually went to but he had been there once when Irvine had insisted on touring all the bars in Deling city and this had been one of them. He sped his pace, if he could get there and wait until the weather had calmed down a bit it might leave him a little drier by the time he got back to the hotel.

          He opened the newly painted door to the bar and walked inside, the few customers who were there already didn't even turn around. Squall noticed they were mostly soldiers because of the loud conversation about battling and following orders. Squall walked to the bar and silently waited to get the attention of the barman who quickly served him because he was bored and had nothing to do, the soldiers probably hadn't purchased any new drinks for a long time but as they were trained and in numbers the barman couldn't threaten to throw them out.

          Squall chose a seat at the back of the bar at a small table after receiving his drink and decided that if he had to wait long then he hoped the barman would be as wary of him as he had been with the soldiers because he didn't want to be disturbed the barman was certainly looking at him a lot until another cry form the soldiers took his attention, Squall had a real chance to think now. And as much as he had previously disliked thinking he now wanted a chance to do so, nobody had left him alone for a while and he was beginning to hate the constant requests for his attention from Selphie, Quistis, Cid, Edea, Xu and Dr. Kadowaki.

          When he left Rinoa he had been angry, the incident didn't shock him as much as it had Rinoa though because he was a SeeD and had grown up to expect sudden attacks and surprises, Rinoa had, it had to be said lived a sheltered life and hadn't grown up to expect any sudden attacks although her parents might have considering the money Julia must have earned from releasing her song all those years ago- the attention she would get from fans. He remembered when Rinoa had been talking to him about their childhood and mentioned her mother. She had proudly announced her mother had been the writer of 'eyes on me' and asked him what he thought of the song.

          _Good job I didn't tell her what I really thought. I think she would have killed me if I told her I hated it _he thought glad he hadn't told her the other thoughts associated with the song, that Julia couldn't sing very well in his opinion and that all versions of the song annoyed him.

          He looked around again, his drink didn't taste very good and there was a smoky atmosphere in the bar which was rather small and rather empty for this time of night- it was quite late. That was another thing, he could lose all track of time, it was slipping away from him and he often didn't realise it- so today had gone in a flash- excluding the conference, which was a pity.

          The soldiers were arguing over a game of cards, maybe they weren't even meant to be there, he could only assume that if that was the case they were being extremely careful not to get drunk and just wanted to skip part of their shift.

          The door swung open, as nothing was really happening Squall turned his attention to the new customer and drew in a breath as he saw Rinoa's attacker enter the room, he obviously hadn't seen Squall yet and ordered a drink- announcing to the barman that he needed one after 'the night he'd had' and sighed. He turned around, leaning on the bar, he looked tired and then he noticed Squall.

          Squall expected him to turn pale, look surprised or scared but certainly not smile. The customer took his drink and walked with it slowly to the table. Squall stared at him, surprised that the man would even dare to come near him after being slammed up against a wall. But he confidently sat down and Squall wondered what the reason was for the action. There were more than enough tables in the bar for him to sit at so there had to be some motive for his sitting there.

          After lighting a cigarette he blew the smoke in Squall's face- he dared to do so because of the Galbadian soldiers who outnumbered Squall easily. He leaned back on the creaking chair he was sitting on.

          "You don't smoke then?" He smirked.

          "No." Squall took another sip of his drink, he could stare at someone for so long but in the end he had to give up, instead he decided to add to his statement. "I didn't think you would dare to come out so soon."

          "I'm Tehn." Squall raised an eyebrow, "That's my name, T E H N. get it?"

          "I'm not as stupid as you. Don't talk to me like that." He folded his arms and had finished his drink, it wasn't very strong anyway but he couldn't drink much and get away with it so he decided against ordering another even though the barman was watching them for- he assumed- not ordering another drink after meeting up again. He must have thought they knew each other.

          "What you gonna do? Hurl me against a wall again? In case you hadn't noticed there are soldiers here who only help Galbadian citizens and you don't really count." He sat back smugly in his chair, the man was an idiot Squall decided, he was giving everything away- the fact he was a regular in this bar judging from the casual way he had spoken to the barman and revealing his name and letting Squall see him properly.

          "Why did you do that anyway?" Tehn seemed genuinely curious. He obviously didn't know Squall was dating Rinoa.

          "Rinoa's my girlfriend." He stated, watching Tehn's reaction. Tehn seemed pleased, why Squall couldn't tell but in a second his smirk was gone and replaced by a serious expression.

          "Really? A SeeD dating a sorceress- there's one for the history books." Something about what he said bothered Squall for a second but he couldn't think what straight away- then he realised.

          "How do you know I'm a SeeD?"

          "Your uniform gave me a clue." Oh great a sarcastic idiot, just what he needed. It was also pretty embarrassing to not have realised the fact himself, he had to wear the uniform as part of the formality for the peace conference.

          It was time to get to the point. "Leave Rinoa alone." Tehn laughed.

          "Or else what?" He gestured around the bar, "you'll attack me in here? At this time, with what? Anyway- commander of Balamb Garden starts a fight in Deling city after peace talks. Not very good publicity is it?" Squall frowned, this man seemed to know an awful lot of information about him, Squall chose his strategy, let the man get drunk and or just wait for him to slip up, and Tehn seemed to like talking.

          "You know what I want to know?" He leaned forward drunkenly after finishing his drink which must have been very strong Squall noticed, "What came first? SeeD or the sorceress?" Squall's face wore a blank look. Tehn repeated the question to no avail. He put it a different way.

          "Were you a SeeD before you met her?" Squall nodded. "Oh that's why- well soon you have to make your mind up."

          "That's none of your business." He half-expected Quistis to join him in the finish of the statement but she wasn't there. It wasn't as if he knew what Tehn was talking about if that was really his name, make his mind up? Tehn did like talking however, he kept going.

          "Yeah it is, if you're gonna give up as part of your loyalty to her we need to know don't we? Before we act."

          What Tehn was saying wasn't completely alien to Squall, he had noticed time after time the impracticalities of a relationship between Rinoa and himself, he was trained to destroy the Sorceress, she was the Sorceress, he was really only buying time for himself. He didn't know what else he would do with his life even at the start of it. He had so many problems to contend with he didn't know what to do.

          Being in Garden he had had some security, he hadn't ever doubted that he would make it into SeeD as his marks had always been the best; he had been one of the best in his classes and therefore he didn't have to worry about his ability to pass. He had a career in front of him.

          That was important, as an orphan he needed to know he would have somewhere to go, live sleep and not have to worry about his future. He had pushed away the thought of quitting SeeD away so it no longer became an issue to him. Now he had to face that as knight to the present sorceress he was a member of an organisation trained to kill her if the need arose. He had always countered the fact with 'well they won't attack her because she isn't a bad Sorceress' but the irony of it made his head ache.

          Or maybe it was the drink, his head was spinning and he wanted to go back to the hotel. He stood up groggily and concentrated on stepping one foot in front of the other. But the soldiers had stood up; it suddenly occurred in the remaining sensible part of his mind that though he had been around to hear the soldiers in plain uniform talking about military jobs to be able to tell they were soldiers but Tehn hadn't.

          Two soldiers blocked the door, and two more waited behind him, they walked up to Squall and seized his arms while Tehn prepared a sleep spell. Squall saw the barman out of the corner of his eye, wringing his hands nervously. He had out something in his drink, it was obvious now, and Squall felt the headache from whatever drug it was make him more and more tired and almost drunk. The spell hit him before he hit the floor, his dead weight causing the soldiers to drop him.

          "Watch it you idiots! We need him if this is going to work." The soldiers nodded to Tehn and picked up Squall off the floor. Tehn checked the back entrance was clear, "Make sure nobody sees you. He made this a lot easier for us but we don't want to get too confident yet." The door swung open and a few minutes later the old customers were gone and the mess from fallen glasses cleared away. So when the next genuine customers arrived there were no traces of what had happened earlier. The soldiers were gone.

          And Rinoa wouldn't know where else to look.


	6. Meetings

The reasons

          Quistis put the phone down, not only had Squall been missing for two days there had been no phone calls demanding ransom, they effectively had nowhere to look. There had been a number of suspicions as to why Squall had been taken and none of them came up with any other solution than someone wanted money fast.

          She had to admit the workload she had been left had thrown her a bit at first. She had gradually sorted it all out leading her to believe that a system for doing paperwork was all the Commander needed to finish it before the deadlines. She sat down at the chair behind the mercifully clear desk in the office. She really couldn't do with much work now.

          She had received the call a day before. According to Rinoa she had seen him last when he had prevented an attacker from injuring her or as Quistis privately believed, kidnapping her for ransom. Another thing Quistis couldn't believe was that Squall had gone out to find him afterwards, it was stupid behaviour Quistis could associate with Zell and his high loyalty but not Squall.

          But Squall had indeed left the hotel, Rinoa was blaming herself, saying that she had pushed him away when she was upset about the attack and he had gone to find the attacker to set her fears at ease.

          Quistis couldn't believe Rinoa, at first she was unable to get any coherent words out of Rinoa but when she did they were laced with double feelings- guilt and worry being the most evident but underneath there was a kind of pride that her boyfriend would do that for her, it had been a good thing Rinoa had not been in the same room as Quistis otherwise she might have had to shake some sense into Rinoa about the seriousness of what was happening- it wasn't a case of finding out how much Squall loved Rinoa.

          But the conference would be beginning again soon, Garden had would dispatch Quistis to attend it, she now being the highest authority in Garden and the commander missing. The politicians were annoyed about the peace talks being put on hold especially when they weren't allowed to say what happened to cause the delay. Mostly they wondered what was so special about Squall for him to be captured.

          Quistis sighed, she walked into the lift and pressed the ground floor button, wondering how all this mess would be sorted out, they had not long defeated Ultimecia and they were experiencing trouble again, but as a big sister she was worried. She wondered if she could contact Esthar to tell Ellone, but the situation was probably not as bad as it seemed and it wouldn't require Ellone getting worried.

          Quistis felt bad about considering the situation wasn't as bad as it seemed- Squall was actually missing, he had never just gone off and left without telling anyone- maybe he had a lapse of sanity and tried to find justice and come across trouble. But the fact remained, there was no reason for anyone kidnapping Squall- especially now. If they wanted to end the peace talks because they didn't want Galbadia and Esthar to be allies they wouldn't achieve that by capturing the commander of SeeD because there would be plenty of people to vouch for Esthar's sincerity. She was proof of that.

          The lift reached the floor and she left the confined lift- she would never tell anyone but she hated being in the lift after it had nearly crashed when Squall had been sent to the basement not long ago to make Garden mobile, she feared the same happening to herself while she was in it but it was the only way down from the office and she had to live with it.

          She was so occupied thinking that she didn't see Irvine until she walked into him, he turned around and looked down at her- being much taller than she was. "Hey Quisty what's the rush?"

          "Nothing- I was thinking that's all."

          "Well watch out- we don't need another Squall." He smiled but the thought didn't cheer Quistis up and she carried on, heading to the car park her shoes squeaking on the highly polished floor, Irvine sped his pace to match hers- and didn't slip as Quistis had done the previous week to her embarrassment, sometimes life wasn't fair. Her best attempts to get rid of him were failing.

          "What's the matter with you?" He stood in front of her and blocked her path- moving in front of her as she tried to get around him.

          "Stop that." She would have folded her arms if she hadn't been holding an armload of books and files in her arms- she was still the bossy sister. "I need to leave soon."

          "I want to know what's up with you are you worried about your new job?" Quistis shook her head.

          "I'm just worried Irvine- I'm the big sister- this is my role- Squall isn't here and I want to get there to find out as soon as possible what's going on. I can't get anything out of Rinoa."

          "Yeah well I think I should tell you…" Irvine stated as Quistis drew near to the car park, stopping dead in her tacks when she saw Selphie and Zell waiting at the vehicle she was supposed to be driving to Galbadia. She looked around at Irvine who was right behind her.

          "We're coming too."

          "No you aren't this isn't your mission."

          "Yeah but Squall's our friend too and I really think you could do with us being around. Politicians aren't easy people to talk to." Quistis laughed, the idea of Irvine being able to talk to a politician calmly where Quistis couldn't just hadn't occurred to her before and seemed unlikely now.

          "What's so funny?" Irvine looked confused. Quistis smiled- something she hadn't done in ages what with all the work she'd had.

          "Nothing- lets go." She stopped him as he walked up the left hand side of the vehicle. "No, I drive." Irvine made a gesture of disappointment and headed around to the back as Selphie had already climbed into the passenger seat at the front.

          A few minutes later they were on their way to Deling city.

~~~~~~~~~~

          Rinoa waited at the hotel, the room was decorated according to traditional fashion in Galbadia before any sorceress wars had taken place, and somehow the styles had not died out over the centuries. There was a window that looked over into the square, she could see the archway from here, and the presidential residence over there and amid the eternal lights which were always lit- the clock where they had hidden in on their mission to assassinate the sorceress at that time- Edea.

          How hard would it have been to fight their matron if they could remember her? Irvine had and his memories had been most vivid, the rest of the orphanage gang couldn't remember her as their mother figure and so it must have been easier to fight her when the time came. But she had fought that woman without regret except for hoping she wouldn't be left behind when it all came to an end.

          It hadn't come to an end- she had inherited the powers and she couldn't see why- there had been other people there and none of them had been given the curse. The powers that would make people hate her before getting to know her if she told them- what did it mean anyway- she had thought long and hard for an answer and none came. She felt like herself for a good and normal but when situations arose she felt different, not just isolated from normal people although that was the biggest part of it but she also felt more powerful, in battles she felt assured and able to cope and help herself. When had she been that independent before- never and it was a feeling she liked- no more demands from her father that she stayed in when she wanted to go out she lived in Garden now.

          That was also a welcome amendment to the usual routine- she could travel and see the world it was like a dream that she didn't want to wake up from, the Sorceress powers were a mixed blessing- she could be made to feel different and separate to society but then she had gained so much independence form her father and her family. Including all the relations- the distant and the not so distant- who visited every birthday and talked for hours about how much she had grown and how quickly children would grow up and then about absent cousins of Rinoa- how well they were doing. The cousins were invariably going to university and doing degrees so Caraway would sit and patiently listen and assume the role of supportive parent- how he always encouraged Rinoa to do well and never forced her into doing anything she didn't want to. That made her feel sick.

          This year- for her eighteenth birthday she had been in Garden and danced with Squall in the ballroom she had persuaded him to sneak into- he had been extremely reluctant to do so- breaking curfew to him was unthinkable but she had spent ages trying to persuade him and finally dedication to her task had succeeded- somehow the ballroom was special to them- or to Rinoa at least. It had been the place where they had first met and she had taught him to dance and she felt an attachment to the place- even when the lights weren't on and the place was undecorated it had been special- nobody had been there to spoil the moment and Squall couldn't be embarrassed when there was nobody to keep a reputation for.

          They had danced for ages and then she heard something that changed the level of their relationship- as if jumping into space hadn't been enough or carrying her all the way to Esthar along the unused rail tracks- it was even bigger than that- he had told her he loved her.

          Just thinking about it made her feel happy and warm her cheeks flushed and she looked around as though there were somebody in the hotel room with her- she was young and little experience in relationships- if she had ever had any at all. Whatever she had had felt for Seifer he never seemed to reciprocate the same feelings for her.

          Rinoa twisted her hair around her hair thinking about the summer she had spent with Seifer- it had been the summer he had taken a break form all the exams of Garden and promised her when he became a SeeD he would come back and take her out of Deling city and she would never have to see her father again. That had made her so happy too- but he never made the grade into SeeD, she had concealed it well but it had been difficult to hide her sorrow that he hadn't made it when Squall arrived as one of the SeeDs sent to assist with the forest owls. That summer with Seifer had been the one when she finally could take no more of her father and left Deling city to join the forest owls to meet her friends whom she had promised to liberate Timber with.

          Timber she didn't really care about- what it stood for was why she wanted to liberate the country- the ultimate rebellion against her father who was General of the Galbadian army- the highly decorated General, respected and had a lot of contacts could not control his own daughter. Yes she had been proud of that.

          That was two years ago now- her relationship with Squall wasn't all she could have wished for but it was wonderful mostly and he fulfilled the promise Seifer had made without realising it, he had taken her away from Deling city and she was now living in Garden near her boyfriend and happy for the most part.

              She glanced across at the door- half expecting Squall to walk in and ask what the reason for all the search parties who had been sent out was. She had followed him after he left- trying to see if she could see where he was going- a small part of her believed that of all people he could find her attacker- she wouldn't forget for a long time the terrible feeling of fear and helplessness as she fought desperately to free herself from his grip- her newness to the powers meant it took her a while to consider using her them. Squall had been angry about the attack- she had practically felt the anger radiating off him and she had wondered if she could sense any emotions radiating off him when she attempted to follow him.

              She had lived in Deling city for almost all of her life. How could she not have known where to go first? Maybe it was her lack of knowledge of the way Squall's mind worked- she had only realised that when she spent half an hour looking in the most widely known bars- in all of them the drunks leered at her and she had left amid disgusting comments aimed at her- but she had never seen Squall in any of them. Somehow in contradiction of all the thoughts surrounding the issue it was a comfort to know he was not in any of them.

              At first she had assumed he was annoyed at her and had gone somewhere to avoid her to get drunk and forget everything he worried about- maybe that was his way of getting away from his work which for the briefest second worried her but as soon as she realised he had been gone for two days she had phoned Quistis and sobbed into the phone word Quistis couldn't understand. She calmed down a bit- all the pent up emotions of the two days of waiting released and she finally gave a calmer more accurate account about Squall's disappearance.

              All Rinoa had achieved from that call was that Quistis would be attending the conference in Squall's place- it was as though they didn't care about Squall's disappearance and were merely concerned in getting the conference organised. This was probably true considering the political troubles caused by postponing the event already.

              She looked out of the window- people were making their way to Deling city to hear the results of the talks- live broadcasts were still rare and unreliable so people wanted to make their way to the city where the talks were taking place to hear whether the treaty had been signed and what exactly were the conditions involved? That was why there was a traffic jam building up; nobody could watch the conference and it had taken a good deal of persuasion for everyone to agree that they should present the results to the public immediately after signing.

              A knock on her door prompted her to get off the bed she was sitting on- she looked through the spyglass in her door and saw the distorted face of Quistis Trepe waiting impatiently in front of the door to her room. Sighing- for what she couldn't guess tell she stood up and unlocked the door- she hadn't even realised it was locked in the first place and wondered if it was a nervous habit she had picked up since being attacked- she opened the door and Quistis Trepe swept into the room.

              She was holding a mountain of reports and papers and she put them down on the bed- nearly dropping them, and rubbing her arms which were aching from holding so many books at once for so long.

              "I have my own room- sorry about this," Quistis explained hastily as though Rinoa was giving her dark looks. Rinoa looked surprised.

              "Its okay- I just wondered what you were doing here first of all- is everything alright?" Quistis shook her head.

              "I just got back from the conference now."

              "The conference? But you haven't been in Deling five minutes."

              "I arrived and I had to attend the talks straight away- they don't want to keep postponing the conference in case anyone decides to back out." Quistis reached into a folder and looked at some of the notes she had made during the discussion- Rinoa noticed Squall had never made any- he came back empty handed every time.

              "Anyway Rinoa- the president of Esthar arrived not long before me and he wanted to know about Squall- I couldn't tell him much because we don't know much ourselves but he wants to talk to you." Rinoa frowned, everyone who was closest to Squall knew about the relationship between Squall and Laguna now- right from that day a few months ago when Squall had casually slipped into the conversation he was having with his friends that they were related- and that he didn't really want to visit Esthar when they were planning to go and see Ellone. Rinoa was eager to meet Ellone who had sent Squall into her head when she was drifting in space after being possessed by Ultimecia. But she hadn't yet and she was still waiting for the opportunity.

              The news about Squall and Laguna had surprised them all, after he had explained he would answer no more questions- Rinoa secretly felt he couldn't answer anyway and he headed to the training centre- letting nobody follow him, even her.

              Rinoa wondered what had happened when Laguna had told Squall- she could ask herself the questions that Squall couldn't- bearing in mind some aspects of the matter were probably private and she shouldn't mention them- but she wanted to know what Squall's mother had been like- what she looked like- all things she was curious about, anything that might give her some insight into the character of Squall Leonhart.

              But maybe he could help her. "Quistis?" She asked, Quistis looked up." Where is he- where can I talk to him?" Quistis stopped paying attention to Rinoa for a second and pulled a pass out of her pocket. "Show this to the guards and go to the room number on it- Laguna gave it to me to give to you for this. He'll be staying in the presidential residence." Rinoa took it out of Quistis' hand and nodded.

              "Um… when you leave, can you lock it behind you?" She pulled a key out of a purse she had carried around with her down town. Quistis nodded and Rinoa shut the door behind her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Laguna was standing at the window when Rinoa arrived doing what she had done earlier that evening, looking out onto the square filled with traffic, nobody was taking the buses because it was quicker to walk and they were losing business. He smiled wistfully at his old home. He had had a lot of homes- Deling city, Winhil, and then Esthar. He had always liked change whereas Raine had always hated it, well so he gathered from the conversations he'd had with her when she was alive.

              Rinoa came in and said nervously, "Mr Loire?" He turned around surprised by the expression- 'Mr'? He never felt comfortable with the name. "Nah- just call me Laguna, it'll be okay." He glanced at Kiros and Ward who were wearing smirks on their faces- making Rinoa feel a little foolish but it was okay, the atmosphere was less tense now. She could feel some of her nervousness disappearing and her curiosity return.

              Kiros and Ward left the room; they were still wearing their formal Esthar clothes from the peace talks. Rinoa glanced at Laguna from time to time to search for any resemblance between him and Squall, mostly there was none but sometimes when he turned his head and wore a slightly more serious expression there was one, in the slight smile that made her wonder whether she had seen Squall smile properly or not. They hadn't been dating long, not long enough to change all the years' worth of training to hide his emotions she guessed he had taken very seriously.

              "Did you want to know about what happened to Squall?" She asked him, "Because I don't really know…" he looked disappointed but he took a step toward her. Better to get to the point rather than drag it out, at least then they might be able to do something to help Squall.

              "Tell me what happened up 'till the time he vanished. Is there anything that could help us know where to look?"

              "I'm sorry Laguna I can't think- I was attacked in an alley when we were coming back to the hotel from the conference," Laguna's eyes suddenly focused on her and knowing now as she did her mother wrote her song about Laguna all those years ago she suddenly understood some of what her mother had written about them. "And- I locked myself in my room and then I looked out the window and I saw him heading into the centre of town,"

              "Where?" Laguna cut her off, "What direction?" Rinoa shook her head.

              "Its no use trying to find him, we've searched and he could have gone anywhere. I followed the same direction myself and I lost him, there were so many places to go to."

              "Yeah- I guess there's nothing we can do." It looked as though someone had already told him this already but he had refused to believe it. Rinoa felt sympathy for him, he was worried like she was but he seemed to feel he had no right to be.

              "Who would you say he looks like?" She said- her thoughts finally being voiced. He looked at her surprised for a second then he smiled, remembering something that obviously made him happy. His mood changed so quickly Rinoa was surprised.

              "His mother," he said- he said that with affection. "Her name was Raine- you ever hear anything about her?" Rinoa shook her head, well technically she had from Squall but he had called her Raine and at that time he didn't know she was his mother. It didn't really count, and then they had been searching for Ellone. Rinoa wanted to ask more questions but the door flew open suddenly, Kiros and ward were standing in the doorway.

              "Laguna," Kiros began, "Ellone's gone." Laguna stood still for a moment and then looked as though he was about to have a fit.

              "Gone? What d'you mean gone! Where is she?" He ran past Rinoa up to his friends and Rinoa felt more and more like she was intruding.

              "We've searched everywhere- there were signs of a struggle in her room, we can't find her." Laguna went pale. It was a nightmare come true, both of his children had vanished at once. But what had happened to Ellone was really making the situation more frightening for him.

              "We have to find her- if I ever catch whoever did this-" he banged a fist on the nearby wall in frustration.

              Rinoa felt it was time to leave, nobody noticed her leaving except Kiros who looked at her to acknowledge her departure and she left the room which was getting noisy as Laguna kept talking and yelling and worrying and complaining about security. Now was a good time to leave.

              She set off; back to the hotel, growing more worried herself about everything, Squall was missing and now Ellone, she had to tell Quistis what had happened, she sped up, and then finally broke into a run to reach her destination quicker.


	7. Theory

        Thanks Caleb Nova for the review- I admit I hate making mistakes so I'll try to put a little more effort into this chapter- plus I'll try to make it more exciting. I suppose the reason I'm not getting many reviews is because I'm not jumping into the story like most other authors and it isn't very good right now. I will stop pestering for reviews- I haven't updated for a while what with studying etc.

Theories

_When -if ever- will life be kind?_

_Is it possible to halt change?_

_Self awareness brings new reflections-_

_Not always pleasant to discover._

_When may I have a reprieve?_

          Squall opened his eyes reluctantly- he had a headache and it was making him dizzy. He sat up, carefully as he felt any sudden movement might cause him to be sick on the floor- of the… cell he was in. That was strange- he looked around the room which reminded him of the cell he had been for attempting to assassinate Edea in d-district prison.

          He searched in his memories for some idea of where he was- he remembered a dark space where he had been tied up and had to listen to half-whispers from his captors- yes he was sure now- he was a prisoner and he had been drugged. That would explain the headache at least- he had never been known to drink much. He had a low limit for alcohol and getting drunk and not being able to control his actions had always prevented his having too much in one go during his life so far.

          But where had he been? He could only suppose he had been to a bar- it wasn't like he had drinks at the hotel, they weren't allowed in the rooms. Anyway he would only have been taken to his room if he had been drunk at the bar of the hotel.

          Another memory entered his mind, Tehn- the attacker- they were linked and it slowly dawned in his head that Tehn was the attacker. He remembered a lot now, Tehn boasting about being the one to attack Rinoa. The soldiers who had been at the bar, skipping a shift he had believed at first but they had been waiting until the effects of the drug the nervous barman put in his drink to kick in before they knocked him out. Evidently Galbadian soldiers thought a single SeeD could fight six soldiers without a weapon.

          _Maybe if I were Zell I could have_ Squall considered, _but then again, even Zell would have had a job fighting if he had been drugged. These circumstances lead Squall to consider that maybe whoever was holding him prisoner was not very organised, they had certainly left a lot to chance- or else they thought capturing him would be a bonus point in their plan. Whatever it was._

          He looked around the cell for any hope of escape, there seemed to be none. The walls were thick as he tapped on them with his knuckles -not really understanding the point of the action to start with- in the hope of finding out how thick they were, his mind was becoming sharper and the effects of the drug was wearing off. He looked around, the floor was stone, polished and smooth, and the walls were badly painted bricks which he would not be able to break. At least not without his Gunblade- which he didn't have. He had left it at his hotel and even if he had had it when he'd been captured they would have confiscated it.

          He looked around his cell- the room was not large, about the same size as his room at Garden and a small bed he had been lying on was little more than a board with a sheet stretched across it. But that didn't matter, he wasn't looking for any sign of luxury and he saw a tray of what he supposed was a meal with a dirty beaker of water beside it. It didn't look fit for an animal to eat and he kicked it away irritably.

          This attracted the attention of the guard. The beaker made a surprisingly loud noise when kicked against the wall and Squall sat down on the bed expecting the guard to tell him to shut up or something.

          But the guard looked though the thin slit in the door and laughed, 'Good, you're awake. I'll tell Tehn." Squall felt a stab of hatred for the man called Tehn who obviously was of some importance in this organisation and wondered what Rinoa was doing, He wasn't too worried for himself, he was a SeeD and was trained to deal with imprisonment better than an ordinary civilian.

          He remembered back to a month or so before when Headmaster Cid had been discussing the leadership of Garden, to make sure Garden was not exploited in any way there was an agreement that if a group should capture any of the people in charge of Garden ransom would not be paid and the best measures were taken to ensure that morale of students would not be effected by losing their commander or their headmaster by appointing capable people to take charge of Garden if the need arose.

          A noise alerted Squall's attention to who he thought was Tehn but instead there were two more soldiers and Squall looked dazedly around at the security- such a lot for an unorganised group, he had little or no chance of escaping now.

          They kicked him as a signal to stand up and he stood up dazedly. The alcohol had not worn off completely and as soon as he stepped through the doorway the soldiers, armed with machine guns indicated which way they would be heading. They marched him through a network of corridors which obviously they didn't fully know yet as there was much consultation at times as to which turning they should take. The corridors were much like the cell he had been in, no windows but many lights and a disgusting shade of green paint covering the walls.

          The doors were numbered and labelled in places- but the guard had a map which he kept pulling out of his pocket and consulting. It was a large building and he wondered about where he was. But he had only a little while to think of all the possible places as they reached a door and a series of numbers were pressed slowly, slowing Squall to see them and memorise them. "Damn codes." The guard muttered and opened the door, a large room behind it.

          The walls were bright blue in contrast to the dirty green and the lighting in here was brighter and cleared than in the corridors. But it was not this that made Squall nearly cry out in surprise.

          At the side of the room, her wrists and ankles strapped to the chair she was sitting, half lying in was Ellone.

~~~~~~~~~~

          "What did you do to her?" Squall demanded- which earned a nasty kick from the soldier on his right- he was facing a scientist now who had arrived a few minutes after Squall attempted to reach Ellone on the other side of the room. The scientist walked to the side of the room to some computers and tapped some keys. He finally turned his attention to Squall.

          "We have not done any long term damage to her. She is fine." Squall recognised the accent as the distinct accent of Estharians; even Laguna was getting a slight accent after living in the country for so long. The scientist continued. "We put a sleep spell on her- she isn't used to magic so the spell is working especially well."

          "Why is she here?" Squall demanded.

          "In due time. It would make no sense to reveal what we intend to do just yet." Squall was frustrated by the reply and glanced at Ellone again. She was asleep and now he saw the usual symptoms of a sleep spell which his anger had not let him see to begin with. His mind began to formulate plans for escape but none of them would work with the guards everywhere. He hated to admit it but they were stuck- it wasn't a case of a film where the allies would come and rescue their friends in this sort of situation. He didn't know where they were and the place was overflowing with armed soldiers.

          "Where are we then?"

          "That I can tell you. To a certain extent anyway. We are on the continent of Centra." Accompanied by a smile, this they both knew was useless information, Squall had flown on the Ragnarok with his friends over Centra. The whole continent was a mass of brown and grey where the grass refused to grow and only tough, resistant trees grew in groups in the few fertile spots of soil. The continent had been destroyed by the lunar cry years before, there used to be a great civilization on the land but now it was destroyed. The few living Centrans had fled to what was now known as Dollet and the number of cities had fallen greatly which overcrowded those remaining.

          But there was a slight hope that wherever they were would be conspicuous so that Garden might be able to raid this place. The thought simmered in his mind until he realised how many SeeDs would be needed to rescue two people. It would be far too great a loss of life for the order to be considered.

          The scientist walked up to Ellone and checked her pulse. "She should wake up naturally soon, but we'll take the sleep spell off shall we?" he raised his right hand- only physical attacks would wake her up right now and he brought his hand on her face.

          She woke up startled- by her location, the disorientation of sleep and the pain in her cheek. She tried to lift a hand to soothe her face but her hands were bound to the arms of the chair and she was immobilised.

          "Where am I?" She looked up and saw Squall and the soldiers who were holding guns to his head. Squall suspected they weren't intending to shoot him but to Ellone who was unused to the whole situation it looked as if they were going to shoot at any moment. "No!" She cried and turned her head pleading silently to the scientist who watched impassively.

          "Ellone, it's okay." Squall insisted in the hope of alleviating her worry and stopping her making any unnecessary bargains with the Estharian. "They want something and shooting me won't help them."

          "You would be right." The scientist ordered the soldiers to lower their weapons. They looked disappointed. "You two are going to be the means of ridding the world of the sorceress forever."

          There was silence for a moment. Then Squall laughed, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You missed something right? We went to the future to fight Ultimecia- doesn't that say you won't succeed?" The scientist looked annoyed. Ellone turned even paler, she looked as though she was going to faint.

          "No- we have several theories about how she managed to do that- but we won't explain them to you- you wouldn't understand them. But we do believe that this way we will be free from the sorceress with the exclusion of Ultimecia of course."

          Squall felt disbelief- of everything he had seen or done nothing compared to this idea. He lived in a world of magic where the unusual mixed in with ordinary day to day life but this beat even that. That these people could presume to even come up with an idea this far fetched was amazing.

          He wanted to ask about Ellone- how had she been captured? Laguna would surely provided security for her? He loved Ellone like nobody else- except for his own mother and he wasn't getting into that series of bitter thoughts right now. Another thing he wondered was why they wanted Ellone in the first place but he wouldn't ask- at least not with Ellone here- she might become more frightened.

          That was a factor, she was afraid- she had been brought up to expect capture- and had been taken hostage once. She was always in danger and she had grown up expecting that, but now she had no idea how her power would assist in losing the sorceress powers forever- she didn't know what to expect.

          "Why am I here?" Squall asked a more subtle question, which might lead to the reason for Ellone's capture too but he decided to risk it. He was a SeeD; admittedly the commander but his position would provide no advantage to these men.

          "Don't you understand?" A familiar voice heralded the return of Tehn, now in a white lab coat like the other scientist. Squall saw him and wanted to punch his face- the emotion surprising him. He did not usually feel so strongly about someone. Even Seifer could not provoke this much hatred in him.

          "No." He was back to single syllable answers. They had replaced his usual silence which he used in response to most people before the war. His relationship with Rinoa had changed him a bit but he wasn't completely different, he still felt the same worries and insecurities as he had had for most of his life before Rinoa.

          Tehn walked around Squall and watched the expression on Ellone's face. "You're here to lure the sorceress."

          "If they don't know where we are how can Rinoa find me?" Squall disguised his concern behind a fact he hoped they hadn't considered. He felt a sudden shock of worry for Rinoa, why was everyone he ever became close to at risk? Why couldn't other people stop thinking about themselves and consider other people- why were there so many selfish people in the world who overreacted about nothing?

          "You are her Knight aren't you, you have a link?" He had a point- all of Squall's theories about their being a disorganised group were fading away rapidly. But there were still holes in the plan.

          "How do you think you can get rid of her powers?" He wearily gave in to the question he had been dreading to hear the answer to. He felt the sheer unreality of the situation he was in, a week before the worst of his troubles had been that he had to attend the peace talks and see Laguna there too. Now he was at gunpoint of two guards among a group of people who were obviously fanatical about their objective. That was more dangerous than an ordinary resistance group.

          "We kill her." Squall and Ellone looked up sharply, Ellone with a bruise on her face where she had been hit and Squall with two guns aimed at his head.

          "Why! What will that solve?" Squall was the only one to speak.

          "Ellone then takes her powers and we kill her." Squall looked incredulously at them, Ellone looked tearful, and Squall felt the same way, the emotion mixed with anger, both people he had and still loved as his only family were marked for death.

          "What about the fact a sorceress can't die with her powers?" He asked, using every ounce of self control to stop the fear in his heart from showing.

          "That's different." Tehn replied. "Ellone is a sorceress of sorts, she should be able to take the powers quite easily and according to the tests Dr. Odine made she converts the magic in her body so it becomes a dependant source or energy." He saw the confusion on Squall's face and explained.

          "When the sorceress has a power it is unique because the magic seems to be an independent form, have some consciousness, it needs no junctioning and GFs to be used and the ability is not linked to its host. So therefore it does not die with the sorceress as other magic usually can. It seeks out a new host and does not let its host die until the link between them is gone. The powers are the link to the living in these situations, the sorceress is them set free and may die."

          "Those are theories." Squall answered. "You don't know the powers have a consciousness of their own and what makes you so sure that if Ellone took them they would change their properties just like that?"

          "Because Ellone has the ability to do so, her power indicates this. And what else make a sorceress so powerful? She has magic like other magic users, and they can die with it, hers is more powerful and that appears to be the only initial difference between them."

          "You're just making assumptions! You don't know anything! You call yourself a scientist…" He saw the uniform, the Esthar insignia on the pocket of the lab coat. "You're from Esthar?" He said incredulously.

          "Yes we are. Most of us in any case. We found plenty of willing people to help us in our cause." Squall looked around at the soldiers.

          "That's what the peace conference was for wasn't it?" He said surprised, "You planned this all along. Galbadia is helping you. You're traitors…"

          "No we are not!" Tehn interrupted, "We are helping Esthar, and the rest of the world! So many people have died because of the sorceress and we will prevent more!" He paced the room. "Do you think we should have listened to that idiot's orders which he formed on sentimentality? He only became president by accident. We have every right to protect ourselves and our children unfortunately we have to sacrifice a few people to do so."

          Ellone bit back a comment, Squall had to agree though, Laguna did not seem to be the most competent person for president, even knowing as he now did that Laguna was his father.

          "A few?" Squall wasn't sure he would like what he was going to hear.

          "Yes a few." Tehn turned to Ellone to watch her reaction. "You're both going to die."

          "Why? Killing Squall wouldn't help you at all!" Ellone spoke; despite the fact her voice was getting a little hoarse, probably from dehydration.

          "I think it would. You see, when the sorceress sees her knight die she'll become emotional; and then she will let her emotions affect her judgement. It will provide us with the advantage of clear thinking." He looked at the computer monitor, clearly uninterested in Squall anymore and this provoked the guards into moving and Squall left with them.

          If Squall could have looked behind him as he left he would have seen Ellone, clutching the arms of the chair and struggling to stop the fresh tears falling down her already tear streaked face.

Well that was it. Not very good, I jumped into the plot a bit but I thought now was time to. I don't rate the couples because I want this to surprise you how it turns out. You'll have to guess who's going to die in this story. No it's all in my plans- I'm probably going to unpopular with quite a few people.  If anyone doesn't understand the theory I made up I'll explain a bit better next chapter in my author's notes. I didn't even know I was going to put the theory in until I wrote it, my plan was different.

The poem is rubbish, but it is put in for dramatic effect so if you want to say its rubbish I don't want to know, only constructive criticism will be paid heed to. That is if anyone wants to review.


	8. Mission planning

Chapter 8

As always

            "This is a major disaster!" Zell was the only one to speak; the news struck them all as sudden and unexpected. He spoke in his usual blunt way, Quistis considered the possibility of it being his trademark. Eloquence could not be attributed to Zell certainly.

          "Major disaster isn't the word." Laguna spoke and Kiros didn't bother telling him 'major disaster' was two words, not one. "I mean, why did they get Ellone? She can't be what they're after!" He paced the office; Cid was once again in command of Garden and the group who had been involved in the defeat of Ultimecia were all assembled there.

          There were the planners of the aforementioned mission and the SeeDs who had carried out the mission six months ago, with the obvious exceptions. Squall they now understood had been kidnapped along with Ellone, the reason for doing so was not entirely clear but they were closer now to understanding than they had been a week before.

          And the outlook was not positive. Cid had called Laguna after Rinoa reported that Squall was missing. Cid had requested to call them into Garden to discuss what they knew. The Esthar president was involved in the matter now regardless of Cid's opinion that he should leave the matter to garden.

          The problem, Rinoa decided was that they were experiencing the aftermath of the recently ended sorceress war. An era had ended with Adel's death, as had been the case eighteen years earlier there was a lot of debris to clear. Laguna and his friends had postponed her death and left the next generation to do the dirty work.

          Another reason Rinoa could not look at Laguna now was that he seemed altogether more concerned about Ellone than Squall. Inwardly she cursed her young sorceress powers for giving her insight into peoples' emotions. It gave her an advantage in her relationship but made her biased regarding Laguna. Because she out all of Squall's friends and close 'family' knew how much the news of their relationship had hurt him. Not so much the news itself but the damage it had inflicted on his carefully organised life had caused him to come grinding to a halt.

          She had tried to put in words the feeling. He had had a routine, she had known it well, he thrived on discipline and he had got up at a certain time each morning and went to bed at curfew and ate at regular times. Missions he was well prepared for and he did them as efficiently as possible, he had the ability to stop thinking about his personal life on these occasions.

          When Ellone had introduced him to Laguna months ago he had considered such a person to be unreal. The reason he thought it was a dream, a strange one albeit but what else could it have possibly have been? When acquainted with the truth it was a little more weird, but they lived in a world of magic and added to that his ability to block out curiosity when he needed to everything was okay, he could deal with it.

          Laguna had absolutely no right to interfere the way he had, he considered his own situation at risk if he told Squall but ultimately he had believed that Squall would benefit from the knowledge. He had been so wrong.

          Rinoa remembered having to watch Squall stumble through the first few weeks with the information at the foremost of his thoughts. Until he developed a way of dealing with what he then knew it was useless to try to be normal, underneath the person Garden had trained Squall had gone through life after what probably would be his major mission knowing he had everything and there was something to his life other than just work. There would be something that would last after.

          Now Ellone was gone, Laguna had nothing to take his mind off the situation. Seventeen years in Esthar without any family to look after, Rinoa had previously expected that he had had a part in Ellone's departure from the orphanage; he had certainly paid for the maintenance of the ship.

          Rinoa looked at the wall, nobody was saying anything, and Cid and Edea were letting the silence continue for too long. They were all hoping someone else would say something.

          W_e're all to busy trying not to think about what could happen, why aren't we doing something? _Weeks frustration was coming to a boil, Rinoa let it consume her for a moment, hating Laguna for ruining her life indirectly. Squall was the only person she had now. Her father was miles away, she couldn't care less, and now Squall was gone.

          _Do I really need him that much? _It was something Rinoa had never really considered, she had always felt that relying on one or a few people was a negative quality, one of Squall's traits. But she realised in a moment as teenagers often do that she was the same, she had changed so frequently, until now she had changed who she relied on. Her mother, her father for a short while and then Zone and Watts. The last two she had been dependant on in her brief period as the leader of the forest owls. She had then abruptly changed again, Squall being her boyfriend necessarily came first and so he still did.

          But she had never been deserted, and although it was not his own fault he had been kidnapped a part of her still blamed him for it. He could have done more to defend himself. Even better he could have not left at all, or taken a weapon.

          "Rinoa what do you think?" Quistis had spoken, she was watching Rinoa intently. They all were- as though seeking her permission for something. Rinoa was ashamed to think she had actually missed an entire conversation.

          "Do I think what?" Rinoa could think of no valid excuse for missing so much conversation, but her mind still sought reasons to do so.

          "About our plan?" Quistis was going to drag out her awkward situation a bit longer. Rinoa had tried but though they talked and seemed perfectly good friends Rinoa felt a quiet dislike toward Quistis. The feeling she knew was mutual.

          "I don't know what you were talking about, sorry." Rinoa answered. She felt silly- and they were making her feel even worse. Their faces wore serious expressions but she could sense the mirth in all of them. She could imagine Irvine talking about it later- how much like Squall she had become. More than ever she disliked Quistis, in that moment she hated her. How dare she try to evoke laughter from everyone at her expense in the current situation? She was stressed out by this and all they seemed to do was single her out when she didn't want to.

          Laguna seemed to recognise some of what she was feeling from her expression. He quickly explained.

          "We thought we could find the base by monitoring areas of activity on isolated areas of the continent. These guys are old scientists and are gonna want a place where nobody's going to find them. We think they'll choose Centra." Rinoa sighed. He had simply quoted his friend in his first sentence and he seemed pretty proud of himself for saying the words properly. It was embarrassing to watch. _No wonder Squall was upset about being related to him._

          "Yeah but how long will that take?" Selphie asked Laguna, she was standing by Irvine or the other way around, it was hard to tell. "These scientists worked for Esthar once. Do you really think they're going to wait that long before they do anything like threatening SeeD?"

          "Definitely." Laguna said, but his eyes revealed more concern. "They wanted to send Rinoa into space straight away when they took her to Esthar. They also wanted to take her back to Esthar instead of taking part in the final battle." Rinoa stood up frowning. She hadn't heard this bit of information and it made her uncomfortable to listen.

          "I suppose I should be saying thank you." She muttered sarcastically under her breath. It was because of this man her boyfriend was messed up as he was, she owed him nothing- not even politeness.

          It seemed as though he had heard her, he reddened and he grabbed his leg briefly before apologising and running out of the room. Kiros shot her a look before following at an equal speed.

          The tension in the room was incredible now. Everyone wanted to look at Rinoa but weren't bold enough to do so. Rinoa looked to Cid and Edea to begin the conversation again. Edea took the hint and announced the first words of the speech she had mentally prepared while everyone else had been talking and thinking.

          "We can't leave things how they are. This organisation believes it is acting on behalf of the world and will not willingly abandon their plan. They must have one otherwise this would be a complete waste of time. Now we have some coordinates we can start examining to rule out all the possible places they can hide on Centra.

          You shall have to be extremely careful because they have a motive and are likely to be very driven by it. Another thing, don't underestimate them. They appear by all accounts to be a amateur, unorganised group but they've achieved so much already which singles them out. Any questions?"

          "Yeah," Zell said, raising his hand in the air. "Who's the leader?" Edea hesitated.

          "Selphie shall be."

          "WHAT!!!" Zell shouted. A few smirks appeared on the faces of the three men standing at the back of the room. Selphie looked as surprised as Zell.

          "But Matron…" She started to say but Edea cut her off.

          "We all need to start somewhere, you haven't had a chance yet so now is your turn at leadership." To say they were surprised was an understatement; everyone in the room had expected Quistis to be the leader for the mission. She was the obvious choice, graduating at an early age, becoming an instructor, and having had experience on certain missions as leader. By all rights she should have been squad leader.

          She looked relieved though. The responsibility lifted from her shoulders, which had been generated by the reasons for dismissal as an instructor. No leadership qualities they had told her. She would not be forced to being the leader when she didn't want to be.

          "When do we start?" She asked Edea.

          "Tomorrow."

          "Shouldn't we get ready then?" Rinoa spoke up.

          "You aren't going." Edea had spoken. Rinoa looked outraged.

          "Why?!" She demanded with a degree of rudeness that Quistis winced at.

          "Because you aren't a SeeD. That's why."

          "I went on other missions with them! I have powerful magic- you might need me on this mission- that's why!2 She turned around to face each of the SeeDs in turn. Selphie suddenly was very interested in the pattern of tiles on the floor.

          "If you go, you obey Selphie's orders and don't go running off to help them yourself. Is that clear?" Rinoa opened her mouth in surprise but closed it again quickly.

          "Yes."

          As the SeeDs and the sorceress left the room Laguna wondered just how difficult the mission would be. Edea had successfully manipulated Rinoa into obeying orders and the young sorceress had yet to realise it. What would her reaction be then?

          When Squall and Ellone were back he would make more effort to get to know Squall, at least that's what he was trying to force himself to believe. When it was all over he could sort out the mess that was his life and let the ghosts rest.

          At least he hoped he could anyway.

          I am so sorry about the update but not having many reviews made me think I didn't have to work so hard. I would love at least one review though so if you have the time could you?

          Thanks to all my reviewers so far.


	9. Imprisonment

Imprisonment

He was lying on his back on a tiny bed, trying to dwell on positive thoughts. He mostly could not believe that they had Ellone, and what they wanted to do. Kill Rinoa? He didn't really understand the theory only that three people would die in order for their plan to take place.

          He stared at the ceiling- invariably his thoughts involved Rinoa- but he tried to remember the good memories rather than the thought of her dying soon.

          _Hyne, I can't stand this._ He shifted on the bed and sighed, the balcony- where they had kissed. Afterwards the mock argument they had about whether they should kiss in public. They had both won; he didn't have to dance when she wanted to so long as he kissed her when she wanted to.

          But had they really experienced much of a relationship for the short while they had been together? He guessed it wasn't conventional to love your first partner in your very first relationship but considering all that had happened he felt it should be more.

          But he wasn't near her, everything had happened so quickly that he had barely time to think. He was in a relationship for the first time in his life, he had just finished the most difficult mission he was ever likely to face and to top it all he found out he was related to Laguna- that wasn't something he wanted to deal with. He had tried to forget but it wasn't working.

          It was his natural reaction; he had long ago learnt that he preferred things to stay the same. That was another difference between them- Laguna thrived on change while Squall felt SeeD provided enough risk without fixing what wasn't broken.

          But his mind drifted back to Rinoa- making it a resolution that Laguna would not be in his head in this situation. He had not paid for what he had done and until he had Squall would not forgive him. He banged his fist on the wall- Laguna was still in his head. He had to stop this now.

          Rinoa was at risk though. He was afraid- the scientist's reasons for planning to kill him were insufficient and Squall was beginning to believe that this carefully organised group weren't so organised after all. Just a group of rejected soldiers from the Galbadian army who wanted to kill and start wars. Tehn himself seemed to want to make a name for himself. A group like that were extremely dangerous and unpredictable.

          Squall saw the guard who was guarding his cell mutter some obscene words and pushing a tray of the terrible food through the door. Squall had seen it earlier, but it had been old and the smell was gone, now it came back in full force. Explaining why the guard had muttered, it reeked of ingredients that had been wrongly mixed together.

          "Are you trying to poison me?" He murmured, the guard who had surprisingly sharp hearing looked inside the cell.

          "What's the matter with you?" He called, he had a loud voice too and Squall felt the sound echo off the walls, making his head ache further. But he wanted to get rid of the _food as quickly as possible._

          "That stuff." He said, surprisingly finding he was enjoying the prospect of an argument. It was better than doing nothing. "It's not fit for you to eat, and I'm certainly not going to eat it." He almost smiled, but as always he caught himself just before he did. The guard's face was a picture.

          "I swear if we weren't forbidden to injure you until the sorceress gets here I'd…" Squall did not reply with the expected 'what?' as he was already bored. The guard turned his attention back to the corridors and Squall turned his attention back to the ceiling.

          _If I could only get out of here- everything would be okay. _But it wouldn't would it? He considered the matter, if he was alone and Ellone was not involved he would have a higher chance. But the current situation could not be changed and he had to hope that Garden had noticed and was searching for him. He had left in the middle of a world peace treaty. With no one to vouch for them Esthar was in a dangerous position.

          He sat up; this might be about the sorceress and trying to help the world according to the soldiers. But if they were trying to help the world why were they starting a potential war? Because if the situation looked desperate there would be no better time to strike than when the enemy was missing it's leader.

          Somewhere the reasoning behind the organisation had been corrupted. Either way, there would be no happy outcome- war or Rinoa's death. Squall sat absorbed by the horror or either choice. 

          The guard outside watched the prisoner, trying to remember what he had said that might have induced the effect of transfixing Squall into the statue like state he was in.

~~~~~~~~~

Quistis looked at the reports. She had always believed in the power of science and didn't understand why the headmaster had allowed Selphie to head the mission to search all over Centra for clues rather than trusting the satellites to take geographical surveys. They had turned out some useful information.

Xu was looking over Quistis' shoulder at the findings. "That looks suspicious doesn't it?" Quistis turned around and agreed.

"Someone's been excavating here." Sitting down at the chair of her desk again she continued to examine them. "It stands out because there are supposed to be caves underground."

Xu smiled, "That's why Selphie couldn't see anything."

"I don't know Xu." Quistis allowed herself to voice the doubts about the competence of SeeD. "We've been making stabs in the dark since the beginning. I don't know how we managed to find anything at all." Xu took a deep breath, evidently the reason she came in was going to be revealed now.

"Laguna wants to know if you found anything. That's why I came here now. I didn't want to interrupt your work." Quistis saw Xu making the involuntary glance to her desk piled with paperwork. Quistis felt a little embarrassed at how behind she was becoming. She had once been on top of all her paperwork.

"Tell him we might have found a possible location of the base, but first tell Selphie to check the coordinates discreetly. We don't need them finding out that we know where they are." Xu nodded, saluted and left.

Quistis never felt comfortable when she was saluted and tried to busy herself in her reports. But peace did not last long and in barged Laguna, obviously in a temper, something Quistis couldn't recall seeing even in his younger self when Ellone had been sending everyone into the past.

"Is something wrong President?" She addressed him formally despite his anything but formal appearance. He seemed unnerved by the title and lost some of his stride. Quistis felt almost sorry for him, he was not someone who could stay mad for long by the looks of it.

"Er- yeah, I wanted to know what was that you tried to pass as information on Ellone and Squall yet for." He paused, "I mean don't you lot think I should have a bit of information too?" He folded his arms across his chest- he was accusing her.

"You were told not no expect too much good news right?" Laguna nodded. "And you get your hopes up easily, if we told you everything you'd get carried away and are disappointed again. We're trying to avoid that."

"Don't act like I'm that naïve Quistis. I've lived a lot longer than you." Laguna looked stressed, the worrying about Ellone was getting to him, Quistis tried to ascertain whether Squall's capture worried him too. But it was difficult to tell from a face. Anyway, she guessed she shouldn't be getting involved. Or at least until the prospect of war died down, the politicians had not trusted her and were demanding the old representative. But what could she tell him? There were no words that could make the situation easier.

She rose from the chair and directed her eyes at his to emphasize that she was telling the truth. "Laguna, we have possible coordinates, Selphie is checking them now and when we receive a report from her, if it proves to be where they've taken Squall and Ellone we will send SeeDs in."

Laguna was going to say something, but he never got the chance as Xu came marching into the room in a hurry, she saluted hastily and repeated what she had been told.

"Selphie believes it is the base Commander, there have been sightings of Esthar technicians and Galbadian soldiers at the coordinates you gave." She awaited orders.

Quistis could barely believe it. That the coordinates could actually be the location they were looking for- such a stab in the dark- was so unexpected that she couldn't conceal her surprise for a moment. When she regained her composure she replied. "Tell Selphie to return here and pick up the SeeDs who will be going on this mission as soon as possible. We need to resolve this before war breaks out."

"Yes Commander." Xu answered and left the room again. Quitis glanced at Laguna, he was getting a glimmer of hope in his eyes that Quistis could hardly tell him to lose, and she felt it herself. Maybe finally since Squall had vanished things would start to work out.

Maybe.

~~~~~~~~~~

          "Woo hoo!" Selphie was zooming toward Garden which was still at FH. She loved flying, the feeling of being in the air and not having to wait for someone to get out of the way. The sky was clear, and hers. She could go wherever she wanted- plus, it was every child's dream to fly, and here she was living it and having to share it with no one.

          Well, Irvine didn't count. He was standing next to her and calling out things like 'go Selphie!' which she didn't really mind. She felt happy despite the current situation. Ellone and Squall missing and in potential danger as hostages but right now there was no point in worrying.

          Having just received Quistis' message she was flying to pick up the SeeDs. There was more at stake than just their friend's lives; there would be war if Laguna couldn't return to the conference for peace talks. And that was something most citizens wanted to avoid.

          She flew past a light cloud, wistfully looking out of the window for a second; women were able to multi-task but the ability didn't extend to being able to pilot the Ragnarok and watch the clouds as she went. She could give up control to Irvine but that would mean relinquishing control of the Ragnarok and anyway, she never trusted anyone else to fly _her airship._

          "Watch out Selphie!" Irvine cried out, Selphie saw where he was pointing to and pulled the Ragnarok higher so it flew steeply over the mountain they had come close to colliding with. Selphie saw Irvine was covering his face and snorted in derision at his cowardice.

          "Come on Irvy, I wouldn't let us crash. You know that!" She didn't turn her head to watch him, so she didn't know what face he just pulled. _He had better hope I never find out what it was._ Smiling sweetly she caused the Ragnarok to perform a series of astonishing spins through the air, pulling up when the Ragnarok came to close to the ground. When the Ragnarok turned steeply to the right- her doing, Irvine cried out and slid from his position on the right of her seat and crashed into the side wall.

          "Selphie watch what you're doing!" He cried out, picking himself off the floor as the Ragnarok straightened and continued its course to FH. He had landed in a heap and his extra height made the tangle more complicated. He staggered up from the floor and sat down in the seat next to her, careful to put on a seat belt to avoid a repeat. Selphie took a quick look at him and saw his cheeks were red with embarrassment.

          "Serve you right." Selphie said, and then she laughed. "Did you scream back there?"

          "No!" Irvine felt compelled to defend himself, "What was that for anyway?"

          "Oh, just because I thought you deserved it." Selphie answered easily, attempting to give herself an air of mystery. "Why would I think you deserve it Irvine?"

          "Because- wait, ohhhh, I get it." He undid his seatbelt to turn around and face her.

          "Watch out, I might do a 180 degree turn this time." 

Irvine frowned, not sure whether she had the maths right but decided to ignore it. "You're still mad about the Post-Ultimecia party." That was what the celebration was now called, it had been invented some time after the party and now it stuck, because of what the party had meant it was remembered now by everyone. Students kept referring to it because it was the most eventful party they would probably have to remember.

          "Well yeah I'm still mad!" She could hear no remorse in his tone. "You flirted with like- every woman there! Do you know how embarrassing it is to be associated with a male flirt?" Her face reddened as she realised what it sounded like, and Irvine picked up on it as well.

          "You're jealous." His face wore an unbearably smug expression and it made her wish she could crash the Ragnarok that second.

          "I am not! Why on earth would I be jealous? I'm just looking out for the female population that's all."

          "They don't need protecting Selphie I'm all yours if you want me to be." He sat sideways in the co-pilot seat and tipped his hat at her. "You only need to say."

          He fell for the second time that day, as they had reached FH Selphie used it as an excuse to land with a steep dive, avoiding crashing it by inches. A lot of FH citizens had run for cover, Selphie undid her own seatbelt and turned to leave the cockpit. "I told you to do up your seatbelt didn't I Irvy?" She said, her anger gone now and amusement taking its place. Irvine untangled himself again and followed her outside down the ramp to where Quistis was, a few groups of SeeDs waiting to board the Ragnarok, Quistis ready to lead them.

          Now they were here Selphie was already starting to miss the power of being in charge. She couldn't command Irvine to stop pestering her, but then again she considered- he hadn't listened before so maybe it wouldn't be all that different.

          Quistis looked stressed; Laguna was waiting outside to see the troops off. Selphie gave her report to Quistis who nodded and gave the order to board the Ragnarok.

          "Remember everyone, we aren't just rescuing hostages, we're trying to prevent a war. This mission is extremely important, do your best and there can be nothing more to ask of you all." She nodded. The troops began boarding the Ragnarok and Selphie watched the SeeDs walk calmly file by file.

          Zell and Rinoa waited their turn and Selphie thought it a cause for concern. "Is it a good idea to let Rinoa come?" She whispered to Irvine. He shrugged.

          "Her magic could really help us on this mission." Selphie watched, the unease in her mind growing. But ignoring the thought she joined the rest of them in boarding the airship.

          "You know, we don't really have a plan do we Irvy?"

          "We'll be fine Sephie." He spun the gun in his hand. "I won't let anyone hurt you." A reply which earned him a smack round the head. "What was that for?"

          "Keep your attention on the mission."

          He frowned and but it soon vanished. They were boarding the Ragnarok and the same feeling of nervousness as they considered what was at stake. Two lives, many more if war was announced, and their own.

          It was a lot to risk.

Wow! I still can't believe Ashbear reviewed me, I hope my writing has improved in quality because I really feel I've been letting it slip.

Thanks to all of my reviewers and the nice and useful comments. (Caleb Nova! The latter especially)

          Yay, I'm pleased with this. Ok- the mission takes place next in my plans, over several chapters. I've got further with this story than I have with any of my others.

          Thanks Ashbear for the inadvertent reminder that I should take pains to write as well as I can, I hope I improve with time but for now I'm happy with the way this turned out so far.


	10. Self doubt

Decisions

        Rinoa was trying to work things out in her head. She looked at the SeeDs milling around her and marvelled again how much effort Laguna had gone to save Squall and Ellone- from what she didn't understand. Her instincts were saying something wasn't right about the situation and not for the first time since she had boarded the Ragnarok she wondered whether going along was a good idea after all.

          Her fears were based on a number of reasons and the fact that everyone had been against her joining in the mission so far only added to the worry. But however much she hated it she had to admit herself that she found it difficult to fight without Squall.

          Her powers had developed and she could confidently defeat any monster that Balamb Garden had to offer in the training centre. But she usually went with Squall so she didn't feel the small amount of nervousness she usually felt when she fought alone. It was a tiny self doubt that she could not dispel and even as a Sorceress she could not get over it.

          But she wasn't alone here. She had her friends around her and they were supporting her even if she wasn't a SeeD. They were real friends and after all she had been through with them and Squall she seriously felt it was a relationship that would withstand decades.

          She glanced around. Such a short while ago- a few days in fact- she had been at Garden. Her fears about her powers had manifested themselves once more and she had managed to distil fear or doubt into Squall when he had visited the Quad.

          It felt like ages ago, days without his irritation at her attempts to get him to talk. Days without trying to persuade him to dance with her. Days of not trying to get him to socialise with his friends.

          She twisted her hands in her hair in frustration, _I accuse him of being too serious- what have I been like since we fought Ultimecia? Her self doubt was still there, Edea had told her that it would take a while to adjust to the powers. But it was harder to deal with when she had just entered a relationship with someone. Even her 'relationship' with Seifer hadn't been this difficult._

          She looked out of the window to gain some idea when they would be nearing Centra.  To her surprise she realised they were already there, Selphie was flying the Ragnarok over the mottled brown green that was the remains of the continent which was once covered with cities and green fertile soil.

          Rinoa's mind took a quick history lesson and she remembered some fragments of her old lessons in a private school in Galbadia. Her teacher had read some published diaries of the survivors who had survived the lunar cry somehow so long ago. The monsters had cleared the land of all life excluding some tough trees that survived in such conditions. The site of the old city was visible still and Rinoa saw this as the Ragnarok glided across the continent.

          She felt more than a little pity for the ghosts of the civilians who had once lived there. They had had their own language but the few people who had made it off the continent had to surrender their own language and culture to live in Dollet. And so had many other cultures who had been invaded. Like Timber.

          Her insides literally squirmed at the thought. How long had it been since she had been fighting against her father's army along with Zone and Watts. When did she give up her promise that she would liberate Timber with them? She had all but completely forgotten her promise to her old friends.

          The GFs. When this was over she would give Squall an order, he would stop junctioning the GFs. They were damaging her own memory and she had only used them for a fraction of the time he had. He had been using them his whole life.

          Quistis was waiting outside the door, and giving orders for everyone to get moving toward the exit, they were almost there. Rinoa took a deep breath just before Quistis walked in, her stomach felt as though she hadn't eaten in days.

          "Are we ready to land?" She asked the blonde haired woman who opened her mouth to repeat an order that she was sick of saying. Quistis closed her mouth and nodded. Rinoa left her seat and began to head out of the door. Her legs were starting to feel unsteady, she didn't know what for, she was nervous but she could face the danger. The Ultimecia battle had held more at stake.

          But that battle she had fought alongside Squall. With the victims possibly at risk here she was personally involved and that made it so much harder than it had ever been in time compression.

          Watching Quistis jog to catch up to her she walked slower, making her mind up to get to know Quistis after the danger. Quistis was someone she didn't know very well and it would be nice if she did seeing as Quistis was one of Squalls friends.

          She held her breath as the SeeDs who were wearing camouflage uniforms returned from the coordinates given to them by Quistis. They evidently agreed and Quistis smiled at Rinoa who had became suddenly aware of the danger and turned pale.

          "We move, we split up into three teams, you know the details of each team as you've been assigned positions already. The team who are going to try to rescue the prisoners will be going in behind us, when we have distracted them enough so they can sneak in. Are there any questions?" The whole group of SeeDs solemnly shook their heads.

Rinoa knew she was on the team who were going to help Squall and Ellone escape and almost laughed at the simultaneous shaking of heads. At the same time it was sad that they acted so similarly, like machines. _Cid didn't train them as well as he thought he did. He didn't want machines for SeeDs._ She could remember that from a conversation with Edea about the origins of Garden once_._

The team of SeeDs went in, the first- the largest group of SeeDs ran into the small, new building that was merely a way of heading underground without leaving a trapdoor in the middle of the continent for anyone to see from the air. The guards were quickly overwhelmed by the attacking SeeDs and backup was called for.

But that was all part of the plan, Rinoa watched frightened from the Ragnarok which was too large not to be noticed. Some of the soldiers who swarmed out of the ground ran towards the airship, the plan was to draw the soldiers out of the ground and then let the rescue team infiltrate the caves without so many odds stacked against them.

"Come on," Selphie murmured savagely to the poorly organised team mixed up of Estharian and Galbadian unformed soldiers. Rinoa looked alarmed at Selphie, the side of her she never usually saw.

In fact it was with all of them, Zell, Quistis, Irvine as well as Selphie had determined looks on their faces. She and the orphanage gang made up the rescue party. They were behaving like SeeDs when they were out for vengeance. That Squall needed to be helped as well as Ellone was foremost on their minds, but it was startling to see their expressions. Year's worth of training had created these people. What sort of people were they when they were angry? 

"When do we go Quistis?" Rinoa asked, she watched Quistis' face settle into a relaxed expression. The soldiers could not be seen anymore, they were closer to the entrance of the Ragnarok than ever. The worst thing to happen would be to be backed into a corner. Which they would be if the soldiers come any closer to the ship's entrance.

"Now." Quistis said quietly. They swiftly headed down to the ramp; Rinoa watched the SeeDs in fascination as they moved into single file and headed to meet the soldiers. Their calm organised behaviour contrasted immediately with the opponents. They had been untrained to fight as a group; they had belonged to two different armies.

That was why they had no chance against a group of highly trained SeeDs and a Sorceress. Rinoa nearly flinched at the thought and forced herself to concentrate on the opponents. They only had a small number of people heading to the Ragnarok and Rinoa found it was easy to cast a thunder spell on the remainder of the soldiers who had not been knocked out by the others.

The spell struck the soldiers as soon as she cried 'thunder' they slumped to the ground. Their energy gone for the time being.

"Let's go." Quistis yelled above the din of shouts and cries of falling soldiers, the SeeDs had the advantage. The memory of their escape form prison kept Rinoa from thinking about the odds of being able to help Squall. They had escaped from the top security prison in Galbadia alive and they could get out of this situation alive.

They ran toward the cluster of buildings, Rinoa resisted the strange urge to send her arms out as though she were flying. The sheer sense of unreality surprised her- she was out to save her boyfriend and Ellone and she wanted to revert to old games of her childhood. Looking at her friends for support they made their way to the cells where they thought Squall and Ellone would be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          Tehn was no fool. As soon as he realised he was being attacked he ordered a group of soldiers stay behind, they were more specially trained than the ones who were out doing the fighting and they could protect him far better than the ones out fighting at the present.

          He looked toward a scientist who was as cowardly as most Esthar scientists were, he was muttering nervous sentences and running his hands through his hair. Classic signs of desperation- well, they were in trouble.

          _Not yet. I will finish the plan. He turned to a pair of soldiers awaiting orders. "Fetch the two prisoners, the girl is the most important, we need her to test out the theory, if that fails we need to seal her once she receives the powers." The soldiers saluted and left the room breaking into a run._

          Tehn turned to the doors. There was no way out now, he was sealed in and the SeeDs were approaching, he didn't want to die but the hope that he would finish the experiment; he wanted to know what would happen once Ellone inherited the powers. If he could prove the power was a sentient life force that needed a host he would be famous. Plus it would pave the way for the rest of the plan.

          Ellone could move minds across time. She could transfer intelligence across time, if that was possible what if she could transfer it into some container which could hold the 'power'. The world would be rid of the sorceress and the last knight as well, Almasy may have believed himself to be the sorceress' knight but he was a puppet.

          Tehn smiled, he knew more about the legends than anyone knew. The knight was only a knight if he and the sorceress loved each other and that was why he was counting on Rinoa's wanting to bargain with him for the life of her knight.

          There were sounds of a struggle outside in the corridor, two shots were released and someone was running away, Tehn was afraid to ask as he saw the guards dragging Ellone into the room. But it was easy enough to guess.

          "You let him go!" he said, shaking with fury at their incompetence. "We needed him to bargain with the sorceress! How do you think she'll agree to the terms now?" The guard looked worried.

          "He wasn't going-" He started, but Tehn signalled to him to be silent. He was thinking and pacing when the other guard spoke, his hand firmly griping Ellone's left arm.

          "He was heading to the cells again. His friends are coming from the other direction." He loosened his grip on Elle's arm as he felt fear from the expression on Tehn's face.

          "We could bluff them sir." The nervous scientist said quickly, "Rinoa won't give her life if she knows he got away but if we tell her-" He too was cut off as Tehn shouted back in an angry voice fuelled by months of preparation gone wrong.

          "We are not going to tell her she'll die for this! Do you think she'll agree to die? Even if she did there's no way her friends would let her!"

          He was quiet, the sound of falling guards sounded outside, Tehn watched the guards restrain Ellone who was squirming, desperate to shout out something. Her mouth was gagged however so she could only shake her head. Her eyes were wide with fear she hadn't felt since she had been held hostage by Seifer's friends. Laguna had made sure she was safe before. She never should have gone to explore the city.

          "Not long now." Tehn muttered.

I was going to add to this chapter but I thought too much happening at once would be too much. I hope people review me, I know lots better fics have only a few reviews at times but I'm working as hard as possible to maintain the characters personalities. If you think it ends after the rescue you're wrong. There will be conflicts of Rinoa's powers before long. Precisely what I aimed there would be earlier in the story.

          Sorry for going on like this, it's so easy to recognise a good fic, much harder to write one so I'm sorry I can't write so well.


	11. Defying fate

Defying fate

          Rinoa along with the other SeeDs ran towards the room where Tehn was. They had made it through the base easily enough. Selphie kept running ahead and checking the corridor ahead to see if it was clear. Irvine had followed her and assisted in shooting down any soldiers who dared to attack the SeeDs.

          But as soon as they saw the signs which had been put up for navigation around the place they split into two groups. Zell and Selphie went to the cells to see if the prisoners were there. Quistis, Irvine and Rinoa headed to the main laboratory to see if the prisoners were there instead. By all accounts of soldiers pleading for their lives Tehn had left when the SeeDs had started invading.

          Selphie and Zell headed towards the cells. The reason they were a smaller group was because the soldiers would most likely have left the cells when they needed to assist in the fight. It was good reasoning but Zell felt it seemed flawed somewhere.

          They ran further down the maze of green corridors. Zell was actually surprised that nobody was stopping them to ask why they were there. The soldiers were occupied. They were losing the battle because many of them were young, barely trained and unorganised.

          _I wouldn't like to be them, _Zell decided. They were all idealistic people who didn't know what they were fighting for; they were on a losing side and trusting in the wrong people. A sudden thought entered his mind as he followed Selphie who was running hell for leather down towards the cells. He considered the fact that they didn't really know what they were fighting for either, besides knowing their friend was in trouble. Ellone was too though and she needed help. Unlike Squall she wasn't trained to deal with such a situation.

          Confusion swirled in his thoughts as they were running nearer and nearer to their intended destination. The temperature was starting to drop and Zell found his arms were becoming cold. "Selphie?" He called out, stopping for a second. In which time Selphie had nearly gone out of sight around a corner.

          She looked at him, confusion on her face. "What's the matter Zell, are we going the wrong way?" She looked at a nearby map and judged they were heading in the right direction. So now she couldn't understand why they had stopped.

          Zell answered the unspoken question. "I wondered if you knew why we're fighting."

          "Does that matter?" Selphie was getting the shadow of a rare frown on her face. But whatever thoughts she was having she pushed them aside. "We need to help Squall and sis!"

          "Yeah," Zell agreed, "But I have a funny feeling something is going on here and we need to get to the bottom of it."

          Selphie shrugged, her light brown hair bounced as she did so. It amazed Zell that she could stand it. "We should go and find Squall and sis."

          Zell had to agree again. There was no answer she could give and nobody else could either. "Yeah, let's go now." He began running to the cells again. Selphie watched him, bemused by his sudden decision. She soon realised where he was going and started running faster than she had before to catch up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          "How long have we been running?" Zell asked- leaning against a wall for support, the posters on the walls were misleading. It turned out that they were totally unreliable and they had been running around for ages in a circle.

          Selphie glanced at the watch on her wrist which she had taken to wearing all the time. "Ten minutes." She said, gasping for air, the same as Zell. She suddenly laughed. It was an unusual sound in the middle of a quiet corridor.

          Zell looked at her, "What's so funny?" Selphie wiped tears from her eyes and straightened.

          "We're SeeDs," She answered, "And we get tired from ten minutes running. I'm ashamed!" She started laughing even harder. Zell felt the accusation keenly and felt embarrassed. It was true, but the reason they were tired was because they had been running flat out.

          They had also made the mistake of trusting the maps. They were evidently to fool intruders and the SeeDs had been fooled spectacularly, they had run flat out in full circle trying to find the prisoners.

          But while Selphie could have a sense of humour at a time like this, Zell couldn't. He felt time was going to waste and he needed to back up the others because while they were split up the other team was at risk.

          Zell looked around the corner; there were no guards anymore to get information out of. They were being overwhelmed above by the highly trained SeeDs. Every circumstance said this should have been an easy mission. He suddenly jumped.

          Selphie had screamed- in a split second someone had run straight into her. They knocked her over easily as she was fairly short and thin, she fell to the floor with the attacker falling clumsily onto her. He had evidently expected some resistance.

          But Zell was a martial artist. He pulled up the attacker from behind, and let him go by pushing him away from Selphie. He drew back his arm and punched straight into the attacker's ribs, stepping forward as he did so to put force into the punch and to extend his reach.

          The punch landed exactly where it was intended to, the man had fallen face forward onto the floor struggling to breathe, obviously in pain.

          Selphie disentangled her own legs. She had kept her face on the floor to keep herself out of harm. Now she was safe she looked at the guy who had knocked her over. Zell turned him over to look at him and to demand reasons for his actions. But he stopped.

          "Squall!" Zell practically shouted, one thing registering in his mind, _I punched my friend. I punched a fellow SeeD._ He couldn't believe it. Most of all he wondered why he hadn't recognised him.

          "Squall what happened to you?" Selphie had spoken. Squall had lost weight somehow and his hair was tangled as though someone had dragged him by his hair. His skin was pale but otherwise he was still the same Squall he remembered.

          "Why did you knock me over?" Selphie demanded. Squall struggled to answer; the wind had been completely knocked out of him by the punch Zell had delivered.

          "I… I thought you were someone else…" He wheezed slightly. But it was a good sign, his breathing was becoming more even and he was recovering slightly. "Why are you here? Where's everyone else?"

          It struck Zell that Squall was talking more to him than he had since their mission some months ago. But he had to answer; maybe Squall could explain what was happening. "We're all here; there are some more SeeDs outside fighting those soldiers. We don't really know any more than some scientist guys from Esthar are involved."

          "Rinoa!" Squall shot up painfully from the floor. "She's in trouble we need to help her!"

          "Easy Squall, we came to find you and sis. Where is she?"

          Squall struggled to get up. "She isn't here, Tehn has her." He sat up, and watched Zell, who was trying to figure out something.

          "I don't get it Squall, what are you worried about Rinoa for? She came with us to help you."

          "She what!" Squall demanded, it was a nightmare come true for him. It wasn't really a question; he knew why Rinoa would come. It was just the sort of thing she would do. She had acted on impulse before and didn't know why it was dangerous to come now.

          "What's the matter?" Selphie asked. She was beginning to feel very confused.

          Squall answered wildly. "If Tehn finds her he'll kill her and Ellone as well we have to stop him!" The news came as a shock to Selphie and Zell, Zell hadn't been wrong in thinking that something was wrong. But on such a scale that could possibly result in death of two people he knew and loved like his family.

          "Who's Tehn?" Zell wanted to know before they started running to help their friends. _Why don't I care why they're doing this? He somehow knew why, the sooner they got there and stopped it the more likely they would have that they could ask 'why?' later._

          "Tehn's the head scientist; he's trying to carry out some experiment that gets rid of the sorceress powers. But it means Rinoa and Ellone would have to die, and it's not guaranteed to work."

          Zell had been letting his mind wander, after asking Squall whether he felt better and getting silence in reply he followed the new leader of his team to the direction the others had been in. They were running, because they knew the risk of this mission had magnified several times. They needed to be there before Rinoa agreed to some bargain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          Rinoa walked into the room where Tehn and Ellone were, Tehn was waiting for them, Rinoa glanced in the direction of Ellone who shook her head desperately for some reason. Rinoa didn't understand.

          "Ah, Sorceress Rinoa, I expected you to find us sooner." Tehn walked forward a little and stopped when he saw Irvine and Quistis pulling out their weapons. The expression on his face changed. "I don't think that would be a good idea if you value her life as much as I think you do."

          Rinoa looked at the others; they were dismayed she could see. But then they would be, their 'sister' was being held hostage for something- she didn't know what. The best she could do was to try to find out what he wanted.

          She felt nervous, in the middle of a room on a virtually deserted continent. She was essentially alone, there was no Squall to decide for her and sort out any mistakes if the need arose. She was bargaining for the life of someone really close to Squall and her friends. She had to make her own decision one that would have consequences.

          She was a _sorceress wasn't she? Surely she could do something. But really it was a question of what. Her powers were still new to her and she didn't know of any spell accurate enough to hit the guards and not Ellone._

          She didn't know what to do.

          She needed Squall again. Where was he? A sudden stab of fear made her feel almost sick. He wasn't here; he had been kidnapped hadn't he. What if he hadn't been captured by these people? If he hadn't Squall was still not safe.

          "Is Squall here?" She asked, forcing her voice to stay still despite her fear about Squall and the anger that her friends were letting her talk on her own. Why weren't they helping her?

          "Squall is here." Tehn said. Quistis spoke- seeming to have read Rinoa's mind. Rinoa didn't really feel very relieved.

          "Where is he then?" Rinoa listened and considered the statement, it was a fair question. If they had Squall they would have two hostages instead of one.

          Tehn's expression changed, Rinoa would not be able to tell normally but her Sorceress powers gave her intuition into what people felt sometimes. He was trying to hide something. And it was taking all of his self control to not let his face show it.

          "You let him go…" Rinoa said, the realisation dawning on her, not really understanding where it had come from. Quistis and Irvine were surprised.

          "You have a choice," He said, avoiding answering their question. "Save her life by staying behind when they go or let her die." He indicated to Ellone.

          "And what happens to Rinoa?" Irvine replied. "Does she die instead?" He looked at Ellone for a second to let her know he was sorry. She shook her head, she couldn't wipe the tears out of her eyes so she blinked furiously instead.

          "She stays for a while we study her powers." Tehn answered quickly. "Then she returns to Garden safe and we both end up getting what we want." Ellone struggled at this, her muffled cry more than letting the SeeDs and Rinoa know Tehn was lying.

          "Keep her quiet!" Then ordered the soldiers and they pulled the gag tighter and pulled her further back into the room. "This is your last chance Rinoa." He walked across the room, pulling something out of the drawer. Rinoa prepared a spell to cast on Tehn if the need arose.

          She looked around the room, scanning it in a second, if she cast the spell and killed Tehn Ellone might be killed as well. The mission might already be over because Squall might be dead already.

          She stopped believing that quickly. If Squall was dead she would know. She didn't know how she would but she would know. They had been together through so much. So much that had been worse than this- she hoped it would stay that way.

          The light was dim so the back of the room was shaded. The figures creeping around at the back of the room were intent on remaining unseen, two people waited behind the soldiers. Tehn pulled out a small, discreet gun and there was the sound of the safety lock being turned off.

          Quistis tried to stop him. The gun was let off however. Fortunately he was a bad aim because he only shot her shoulder. But it was still painful and she winced as her shoulder began to bleed.

          Rinoa was ready to release the spell and cast it on the other soldiers who were armed. Tehn was determined his plan would work. He made his way toward her. Irvine aimed his gun but Tehn had already run across the room to Rinoa. Ellone had been released when Selphie and Zell had knocked the soldiers out moments before.

          Joining them Squall left the safety of the shadows to help her. He had been one of the people at the back of the room. Tehn hadn't seen him and still held the barrel of the gun to her neck.

          Tehn stared in hatred at Rinoa. "You think you're wonderful and kind don't you?" He grabbed her arm, her eyes met Squall's she sent a silent plea to him through her eyes, He shook his head, he couldn't do nothing.

          Tehn continued. "You aren't though; you'll act like the rest of them. They all start off with good intentions and then power corrupts them." He glanced at Squall who was trying to inch quietly toward them. "Are you paying attention? The sorceress always becomes corrupted. You're a fool for becoming her knight." He was going to do it; he was going to accomplish his plan. Even if he died he would be acting on the best interest of the world. With no sorceress there would be no more sorceress wars. Countless lives would be saved in the process.

          Rinoa didn't know Squall could move so fast. He moved while Tehn contemplated what his actions would mean. He repeated what he had done to Selphie earlier with more force, knocking the scientist over and picking himself up to get himself and Rinoa out of the way.

          Tehn still had the gun, he pulled it straight for a clear target, the SeeDs were watching as if in slow motion. Squall making sure Rinoa was safely out of the way. His duty was to make sure she was safe as a Knight; neither of them had considered what it would cost. Squall had meant to check that Tehn had no gun but his duty to ensure she was out of the way prevented him from doing so.

          It was a mistake not to do so.

Tehn pulled the trigger, hoping to shoot Rinoa; he was a bad aim from a distance. But Squall was in the way. Squall lurched forward in pain as the bullet went into his back. Tehn felt the recoil of the gun as Squall fell. Rinoa watched horrified; her expression was that of complete and utter shock- Squall looked… dead. But he couldn't be could he? _He can't be._

          But she saw Tehn, lying on the floor picking himself up, she turned to look at Squall who was surrounded by his friends- Irvine was shaking his head and amid her grief something inside her snapped.

          It was anger. She wouldn't want another knight. She only needed Squall; this would be the only way. Never mind the complications. Inside herself her power stirred. It was real power this time, fuelled by emotion, and the powerful desire to be wherever Squall would be in a short time-he was dying.

          "Rinoa?" Selphie looked up and saw her friend was glowing. It actually made her eyes hurt and she turned them away. Wings spread out of Rinoa's back and the light grew brighter but Tehn would be on the receiving end of the spell. He would feel worse than her soon.

          Emotions fuelled the spell; fear and self doubt inside her were triggered with grief and anger. She didn't believe Squall could live; certainly nobody else could either judging by the looks on their faces. Her anger finally released the spell onto Tehn.

          The light filled the room and spread into the of the corridors. But it only injured the one Rinoa wanted to hurt. It was spreading everywhere and Ellone couldn't understand it. But it was simple to understand in truth had any of them considered it.

          Rinoa was letting go. Letting go of all the unwanted emotions she had had to deal with since becoming a sorceress- fear, loneliness, and worry that her powers would change her. Not all change was a bad thing. She finally realised that in the closing moments of the spell.

          The spell was drawing to an end. The light dimmed, it returned to her. Her friends watched her. She felt so tired, more tired than she had ever been in her whole life. It was so deep that she collapsed onto the floor.

          Irvine was torn between Squall and Rinoa. A check revealed Rinoa was not breathing and Squall's pulse was becoming weaker. Selphie was pouring magic curaga spells into Rinoa. "It's not working!" She said urgently. Zell shook his head.

          Ellone waited near the door, there were people marching up the corridor. She looked up and her heart jumped in fear as she saw Estharian soldiers- so many of them, she and the others were outnumbered. "No," She murmured.

          She saw someone she recognised however- they weren't the enemy. But it was too late. Far too late, if they had got here sooner Squall and Rinoa would be okay. It was alright to cry she decided as she let herself fall to the floor. There was no hope now.

I hate this chapter. No matter how many times I wrote it, it came out wrong. I'll leave it though. I'm near the end now. It came out much quicker when I started getting reviews, so if you want the epilogue to come out sooner please review.

I'll always remember this as my first 'long' story. I can't write well with action scenes but when I started writing I spent days writing the first chapter and now I find myself automatically putting in description.

If you think this is rushed I might revise it. But this story is drawing to a close,

The main theme is fate and what it means. The next chapter 'epilogue' will explain the theme of the story and the title so 'defying fate' will be explained.

Thanks everyone.


	12. Epilogue

Epilogue- stability

          Rinoa watched the sunset over the horizon of Esthar. It was odd how she felt a part of her life was coming to an end. In one way it was. Squall and she would have to start looking for somewhere else to live soon.

          Maybe the recent events had changed their priorities. Squall had been shot and she had cast a spell that had had some effect on her powers. They seemed dormant. She couldn't explain it, understand it and as her mind had been filled with anger and grief she couldn't explain what had happened when she cast the spell.

          She was now familiar with the theory about the sorceress powers being conscious. Well she wasn't sure she believed it. But then again she wasn't sure that she would like to believe it. But it fitted in with the legends of Hyne, along with the story of Hyne which she had heard in her childhood.

          She had nearly exhausted her powers when she had cast the spell. A little part of her formed the hypothesis that the power was really conscious and that maybe it had lost the battle of dominance over her mind.

          And with that thought she wondered if that was why Adel had become corrupted, losing the battle. Rinoa had been fighting something after receiving her powers- she had thought it was fear. But strangely it was gone.

          She cared most about the future now. When she began thinking about her powers it gave her a headache. She wanted to concentrate on whatever future she had now with Squall. She was nervous but excited too.

          Laguna had brought medical facilities along with the boat which had understandably taken longer to arrive at Centra than the Ragnarok. Back in Esthar the doctors had treated herself and the more seriously injured Seeds after the battle.

          The losses had been none for Garden. The casualties had been severe in a few cases but life could return to normal.

          The treaties had gone again underway as soon as Squall had recovered. Rinoa laughed as she remembered the sheepish look on Quistis' face when she explained he was expected at the peace talks the next evening.

          Leaning against the rail she noticed there wasn't much wind. Which was surprising considering how cold it was getting now, winter was setting in and it was considerably colder than any winters she had experienced.

          She smiled again at the new idea she had come up with, persuade Squall to let them go to a warm country. Maybe somewhere down south. She liked the idea of learning another language.

          Someone was walking behind her, it was a case of déjà vu switched around as she recognised squall. It was like the time when Squall had been wandering in the quad ages ago to get a bit of peace and quiet.

          "Hello Squall." She bit back a laugh; he was surprised she could tell. She could almost feel the emotion radiating off him. She gave him credit though; he continued on his path and slipped a pair of arms around her waist.

          "Can't sneak up on you can I?" He murmured into her hair, she being a little shorter than he was.

          "I could sense you coming a mile off." That was another thing, since the 'battle' she had fought with herself had left her feeling more focused and she was experiencing other powers. Such as the ability to sense her knight.

          "Yeah well next time you won't be so lucky." It was amazing now that Squall could create small talk. Maybe it was from being around politicians for so long.

          "It really has been a while hasn't it?"

          "What?"

          "Since we could talk." She glanced at him, she was right; they hadn't had much time to talk lately. His final duties before he could give up his position as commander had taken up some time. Then sorting things out with his father to whom he did owe something. He owed his life that he was now going to spend with Rinoa.

          "I think I should mention something Rinoa." Squall was trying to look embarrassed, but he wasn't practiced in the art of acting and he failed badly. It actually seemed that he was trying not to laugh.

          "What?" She asked while twisting her head up to look at him. It wasn't a very good view of his face; she could only see his chin and his nose. She pulled her body out of his arms and he had to settle for looping an arm round her shoulders instead.

          "I've got some ideas about where we should choose to go…" She started as they headed into the building as the wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping further.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          Laguna was sitting at his desk pretending that he was working. If Kiros or Ward had been there they would have known it was really an excuse to think. This was in itself uncharacteristic behaviour. He never liked to consider things because he had so much faith in his ability to act on impulse and everything turn out fine.

          It was strange but it was Squall who had caused the sudden character change. They had spent a long time talking about things, things Squall wanted to know about his mother.

          But though they were at an uneasy truce now, things were definitely better. They could talk when they needed to; Squall's awkwardness was caused by his discomfort at talking more than he felt he needed to. He had never been much of a conservationist but he was making extreme attempts to make their relationship easier.

          It still hurt as it had always done to look at him and think of Raine. But that was something that could only be changed over time. Right now Laguna could only think of Squall as Raine's baby. He didn't want to think that way but it was how he had come to know of Squall and he only hoped it would be rectified as he came to know him.

          But there would not be so much chance of that now.

          Squall had quit SeeD. He had come to some decision that being a SeeD and the partner of the sorceress was nothing short of hypocritical. It was choosing between duty and who he loved that had caused so much conflict ever since meeting Rinoa.

          Than again Laguna decided, it could all be guesswork on his part; he was assuming that this was a welcome change for Squall. There was nothing worse than closing a door totally; you were inevitably drawn toward it again when you could never walk back into your old life so he hoped it was a god thing.

          He had Ellone still though and now Squall was on speaking terms with him. He couldn't imagine what had made Squall change his mind about wanting to know his own family but it had been near death for Squall before Laguna had shown up with backup. Maybe Squall was re-assessing his priorities.

          Ellone wandered in again, which could only be a good thing. He had Ellone near at hand, Squall would be leaving with Rinoa soon and he would have only remnants of his family left.

          Not true, the optimistic side in him refused to give in to misery. Squall would have one settled home so it would be easier to contact him; he was going to have a longer life expectancy out of Garden. The missions considerably shortened that for a SeeD.

          And there would be no animosity between them either. That was something to be grateful for.

          Ellone was talking about Rinoa's plans for her and Squall to live somewhere in a little town that was rarely visited by tourists. Laguna directed his attention to Ellone who was at that moment was describing Rinoa's plans to persuade Squall to choose that place to go.

          Rinoa would win no doubt.

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          Selphie and Irvine were doing well Quistis decided. Well, Selphie hadn't said that she would go out with Irvine yet but it would happen. Irvine was winning her over and Zell would win over the library girl.

          A few people had joked about her getting together with Seifer, but that was ridiculous. She had heard of the saying of opposites attract but not that opposite.

          No, for now she was content with being on her own, she might meet someone in Garden, she was returning there next week. There was someone out there for her, she just didn't know him yet that was all.

          Meanwhile, Rinoa and Selphie were planning a shopping trip in Deling city soon and she had been invited. It would be one of her few chances of being a normal teenager, it was strange that sometimes she forgot her age and acted considerably older.

          She had been promoted permanently; she had just coped with the workload last time and without her old work added to it she could cope. Xu was taking over her old position.

          She walked along the halls of the hotel she was staying in, bumping into everyone she knew at the palace had been too much and she had to settle for her own room in a nearby hotel.

          She glanced out of the window. Something wasn't finished in this situation. She couldn't describe it. An uneasy feeling crept into her heart and she had a feeling it was to do with Rinoa's powers.

          The scientist couldn't be entirely wrong could he?

          She thought of Squall and Rinoa, planning their new life elsewhere. What did the thoughts mean?

          A comet burned in the sky, visible as a firework across the sky. She had learned that nothing in life was ever so simple as they looked. Maybe this was another case.

          Laughter rang throughout the city; the surface of things looked fine. What was underneath was the problem.

          She tried to shake off the unhappy thoughts. She was going to meet up with her friends and they would plan their immediate futures. What was waiting ahead for them all would have to wait.

          She picked up her pace and reached her room just as another comet burned in the sky.

I've finished this story, I was reading someone's fic lately and I felt really sad when I read it, so this ending is a way to bridge the gap between this and the next part I want to write. This will continue with the theme of the sorceress powers having a consciousness.

It was so tempting to leave it here and say that was it but as with the game I believe there is sufficient enough plot holes left from this that I can fill when I write the next story.

This is my first completed fic and it will always be special to me because of the reviews I got and the massive learning curve I've been on since I started writing.

This was initially meant to include much more Rinoa and Squall relationship stuff but I didn't know how to write it and it didn't seem to fit in my plot.

Thanks reviewers- you kept me going even if I did take so long to write the epilogue!

The initial idea I had of making this a dark fic didn't quite work out but I hope I keep enough of my dark mood for when I write the next story.

I think I started writing this when I finished reading Crimson lies; I started writing the ending when I read another brilliant fic recently.

The next plot will be focused on Squall and Rinoa as always and when I can get round to writing the next plot plan I hope my story stays true to it this time.

Thanks everyone.


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